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Tendai Rupapa Senior Court Reporter
Cases of desperate home-seekers losing thousands of dollars to suspected fraudsters who are selling non-existing stands or forging identity cards and title deeds of stands or houses belonging to other people, flooded the courts last week.
Six suspects including an 80-year old man appeared before magistrate Mr Tendai Mahwe charged with fraud.
To convince the victims, the suspected fraudsters, who include men and women, posed as husbands and wives and manufactured identity cards with their faces and bearing names of the original owners.
Livingstone Machingauta (37) and Memory Muchemwa (36) masqueraded as husband and wife while Xaverio Dzinowanda (80) and Emmie Nyakudonga (61) also posed as a couple.
Two other suspects identified as Nancy Kutyauripo (36) and Vongai Majoko also swindled home seekers and the six appeared on separate records.
They were all denied bail and are in custody pending trial.
Prosecuting, Ms Sheilla Mhuru alleged that on April 29, Machingauta and Muchemwa identified a residential stand in Mt Pleasant, Harare which is owned by Rumbidzai Mushati and his wife Lorraine Sakarombe.
They advertised it in the press and the complainant (name not supplied) responded to the advertisement and called on the supplied phone number.
The phone was answered by Machingauta who then posed as Mushati and invited the complainant for viewing.
Machingauta and Muchemwa forged identity cards with their faces and bearing the names of Mushati and Sakarombe.
They agreed on the purchase price of $30 000 and the complainant was given fake title deeds of the stand.
The court heard that the parties later met again on May 8 and Machingauta was in the company of Muchemwa whom he introduced as Sakarombe.
The duo produced an agreement of sale , which they wanted the complainant to sign, and they demanded $150 as processing fee.
Coincidentally, the complainant works with the original owner of the stand, Mushati and when she got to work the following day, she told Mushati that she was buying a stand from a person who had the same name and surname as his.
Mushati then asked the complainant about the details of the stand and he discovered that it was his stand.
The pair was arrested following a trap after they had gone to meet with the complainant to collect the $30 000.
On the other case, Kutyauripo and her alleged accomplices advertised a stand, which is in Mandara, Harare which belonged to Elizabeth Khaka.
Brighton Gwavava responded to the advert and drove from Bulawayo to view the stand and they agreed on the purchase price of $35 000.
The suspects also used the same method of manufacturing identity cards and title deeds.
After paying the deposit of $12 000, Gwavava took the title deeds and the agreement of sale to his lawyers who discovered the anomaly and a report was made to the police.
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