admin
Prosper Dembedza
Court Correspondent
Two suspected fraudsters have appeared in court on allegations of defrauding TM Pick n Pay of $22 million after misrepresenting as TM Pick n Pay finance managers.
Tonderai Selesio Chagweda (28) and Wellington Jombe (34) were facing fraud charges when they appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Richard Mangosi.
Prosecutor Mr Lancelot Mutsokoti opposed bail on the grounds that the duo will interfere with investigations.
He further submitted that they were likely going to abscond if granted bail.
The matter was remanded to today for full bail application.
The court heard that Chagweda and Jombe, working in connivance with Ronald Mudzingwa and Moses Banda who are still at large, hatched a plan to defraud TM Pick n Pay and created an email address Raymondmatsetswa@Tm/supermarkets.com and passed themselves off TM finance manager, Raymond Matsetswa and Gamuchirai Nyamuzinga, the chief finance officer.
It is alleged the two sent an email to Steward Bank with instruction forms with forged signatures of Matsetswa and Nyamuzinga instructing the bank to process and debit TM Supermarkets’ Steward Bank account to four different transactions amounting to $22 million.
The complainant, without noting the difference of the email address, authorised and processed the transaction.
The offence came to light on March 3, when TM Supermarkets head office disputed some of the transactions on their account.
It is alleged that preliminary investigations carried out by the complainant revealed that the email used by the accused persons to send the instruction forms was different from the one TM Supermarkets finance manager, [email protected].
This prompted the complainant to file a report with the police.
Online Reporter