Musician Sheila Wairimu, popularly known as Shay Diva has been found guilty of stealing a dead tycoon, PJ Dodhia Kumar’s vehicle.
In his ruling, Kitale Chief Magistrate Julius N’garng’ar said the musician transferred the car, a Toyota LandCruiser V8, to herself a day after the man’s death.
Following the ruling, Shay Diva will be sentenced on Monday, December 5 pending mitigation.
The 30-year-old musician was accused of obtaining registration by false pretence whereby she willfully procured for herself registration ownership of motor vehicle.
Shay Diva falsely changed ownership of the vehicle pretending that she had been gifted by Dodhia who died in April 2021.
She was also accused in counts two and three of stealing and intermeddling of the family property.
Appearing before the court, Shay Diva pleaded not guilty to the offences and was ordered by the magistrate to deposit cash bail.
“You have heard and comprehended the case. Are you pleading guilty or not, ” the Chief Magistrate in the plea taking session asked. “Not guilty your honour,” she answered.
Dhodhia’s family dragged the musician to court arguing that the deceased only gave the car to her on a ‘use and return basis’.
“After the owner of the vehicle died, she changed ownership within four days. The deceased’s wife authorized one of the relatives to make a report of any property owned by the deceased,” Trans Nzoia DCI officer Francis Kihara said in 2021.
Records from the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) showed a transfer of the car’s logbook was done by a person who logged into Dodhia’s TIMs account days after his death.
The authorization of transfer was granted at 2:00 pm the following day but there were no supporting documents from the owner.
Detectives tracked Shay Diva to Kitengela where she lives and towed the vehicle to Buruburu police station and later to Kitale.
The musician was arrested while trying to reclaim it.
“She initially made attempts through lawyers to block us from pursuing the matter but failed. She came on Friday in an attempt to recover the vehicle but we arrested her instead,” Kihara added.
On her part, Shay Diva claimed that the luxury car was transferred to her without her knowledge and that she learned about it when she logged into her NTSA account.
She will be charged with stealing, obtaining property by false pretenses, and interfering with a deceased person’s property.
