A MUM who “loaned” her baby to friend so she can claim maintenance from her boyfriend has been arrested.
Magret Dick, 22, blew the lid on the fraud after her friend, Ndaizivei Moyo, 24, failed to return the six-month-old tot after two days as promised.
The desperate Dick, from Masvingo’s Rujeko C suburb, sought police help after Moyo left for her rural home in Rusape.
Detectives tracked the child to Rusape and returned it to its mum, but tempered the good news by arresting her under child protection and adoption laws.
Moyo, who wanted to claim child support from her truck driver boyfriend, was also arrested.
Masvingo police spokesman Inspector Tineyi Matake told the Herald newspaper Moyo had promised Dick a year-‘s supply of BABY MILK if her fraud succeeded.
Matake said: “We arrested the two women after they conspired to trick Moyo's boyfriend that she had given birth, yet the child belonged to Dick.
"We are charging the two women with fraud and also for contravening the Child Protection and Adoption Act and they will appear in court soon.”
Police say Dick “loaned” her friend the baby on January 2 this year. Moyo had promised the tot would be returned on January 4.