Harare — ZIMBABWE Newspapers group financial controller Adolf Majome and four workers of a local car dealer have been arrested for allegedly conspiring to defraud the printing and publishing concern of more than $400 million.

Majome was arrested on Thursday night while the other four suspects, who work for Freedom Motors, had been picked earlier in the day.

Police spokesperson Inspector Andrew Phiri confirmed the arrests and said investigations were still in progress.

"Yes, I can confirm that we are investigating such a case but investigations are still in progress," he said.

Majome and the four allegedly connived to sell a second hand Nissan Hardbody 2,7D pick-up truck to Zimpapers purporting it was brand new.

The four Freedom Motors workers reportedly tampered with the mileage of the truck to dupe Zimpapers officials into believing that it was a new vehicle.

Zimpapers advertised that they were looking for new cars and the four responded.

They then entered into an agreement with the company and supplied five vehicles, including the Nissan pick-up truck in question.

The other four vehicles were reported to be brand new.

But the truck had travelled for more than 3 000 kilometres and Zimpapers officials declined to buy it.

The truck was being sold for $6,8 billion.

The four Freedom Motors dealers allegedly tampered with the mileage of the truck and wound it back to indicate that it had only travelled for 40km.

An alert Zimpapers official discovered that it was the same vehicle, which they had declined after checking the engine and chassis numbers.

A report was made to the police leading to the arrest of the four suspects.

After being interrogated, the four implicated Majome saying they had paid him $40 million.

Majome was then arrested before being released last night.

The other four were still detained at Southerton Police Station while detectives from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Vehicle Theft Squad looked into the case.

They are expected to appear in court soon.

Zimpapers group chief executive Mr Justin Mutasa warned workers against engaging in corrupt activities.

"Anybody who is involved in corrupt activities will be brought to book. This should serve as a warning to everybody at Zimpapers," he said.

He said Zimpapers would co-operate fully with police in their investigations.