HARARE – A Harare man was on Monday jailed seven years for defrauding a businessman of R1 million in a botched foreign currency exchange deal.
Allen Thindwa Mzamu will however serve three years effective after part of his sentence was conditionally set aside.
Mzamu was convicted on two counts of fraud.
For the first count he was jailed seven years. Two years were suspended on condition of good behaviour.
A further two years were suspended on condition that he restitutes the complainant R953,925.
For the second count, he was handed a wholly suspended two year jail term.
The complainant is Zvataurwa Makoto, the director of Sitaz Health Care.
The state proved that sometime in 2019, Mzamu misrepresented that he had transferred R953,925 to JCB Polokwane in South Africa on behalf of Makoto.
Makoto then transferred ZWL1,363,538 into a CBZ account fraudulently registered under the name Dr Harrington and Associates. As soon as he received the deposit notification from Makoto, he allegedly reversed his R953,925 payment.
Mzamu and his accomplices who are still at large converted the money into United States dollars after making transfers to Devin Sabapwe, Solomon Magodhiyana, Wilfred Takudzwa Kapiya, and Tinashe Ngwerume.
On January 28, 2020, acting on a tip-off, police arrested Mzamu in Harare’s central business district.
Prosecuting, Tendai Tapi said: “A search of his Audi A4 vehicle uncovered several incriminating items, including a Hisense cell phone registered in his name Mzamu, CBZ and CABS ATM cards under the name Dr Richard James Harrington.
“Police also found a personal pin for Harrington’s CBZ ATM card, ATM cards registered under the names Godfrey Mampondo and Straight Manhuwa; an expired Malawian passport and a fake Zimbabwean National Identity Card bearing Mzamu’s photograph but with the name Adam Andrew.”
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