Harare — A Harare man has appeared in court for allegedly forging registration books of vehicles suspected to have been smuggled into the country and selling the cars to a city businessman.

Tikwiza Dimba (42), who stays in the city's Avenues area, was brought to court yesterday to answer forgery charges while the Vehicle Theft Squad was still investigating the smuggling case. He was remanded out of custody to July 20 on US$200 bail.

Magistrate Mrs Jackie Munyonga ordered him not to interfere with investigations and to continue residing at his given address until finalisation of the matter.

Prosecutor Miss Lethiwe Maphosa told the court that in January this year, Dimba smuggled three vehicles -- a Mercedes Benz C220, a VW Golf and a Ford Ranger -- into the country and sold them to Mr Douglas Makuku.

As part of the conditions of sale, Dimba undertook to pay duty for the imported vehicles and to register them in the name of Mr Makuku. It is the State's contention that Dimba did not pay duty for the three cars but instead produced fake registration books and claimed the vehicles had been properly registered.