When an uncle and nephew fight, it is the vehicle that suffers.

This seemed to be the case when a Victoria Falls man who was angry that his uncle had rebuked him for driving his Range Rover Discovery without his consent armed himself with bricks and shattered the vehicle’s windscreen.

Ropafadzo Muposiwa of 4812 Chinotimba was hauled before Victoria Falls magistrate Lindiwe Maphosa for malicious damage to property recently after damaging three windscreens including the front, with a combined value of $28 350.

Muposiwa was lucky to escape jail life after his uncle Donald Karati of Mkhosana probably considered that blood is thicker than water and wrote an affidavit withdrawing the charges because the accused had fixed the damage by repairing the car.

The court withdrew charges before plea.

Said Karati when he initially made a report: “We had a misunderstanding during the day after he drove my car without my permission. I took the car for fixing and later I got a call from Elvis Nyathi telling me that it had been damaged by the accused. When I went to check I found that my car’s windscreen had been damaged.”

Prosecutors said Muposiwa committed the crime in full view of a neighbour Elvis Nyathi.-statemedia