Appeal against US$450k theft conviction fails

Fidelis Munyoro
Chief Court Reporter
A former Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) employee hit with an effective three-year jail term for stealing more than US$450 500 from the revenue authority’s coffers has had his appeal against conviction thrown out for lack of merit and so will now be put behind bars.

Tapiwa Chidemo was convicted of two out of nine counts of theft in December 2017.

Working as a Zimra accounting officer, he was the sole user of the PAYNET computer system and so was able to make changes in the system such as bank account details of clients and create or delete transactions recorded.

Using this access to PAYNET, Chidemo transferred tax refunds into bank accounts of individuals and companies which were not entitled to the refunds.

The money would be withdrawn from the accounts and handed over to him for his personal use. He was sentenced to six years in jail, but one year was suspended on condition of good behaviour.

A further two years were set-aside on condition he paid Zimra back the US$450 538 he stole, and if he can only find part of the money, his sentence will be reduced by the same proportion.

After his conviction and sentence, an appeal was launched by Chidemo’s legal counsel at the High Court on the basis that the trial court misdirected itself in convicting him where it was not proved beyond reasonable doubt that he committed the theft.

Senior judges, Justice Felistus Chatukuta, then a High Court judge, and Justice Pisirayi Kwenda sitting as an appeals court, rejected Chidemo’s appeal on the conviction, which was passed for the two counts of theft. Justice Chatukuta, in the judgment, ruled the inferences drawn by the lower court were consistent with the proven facts.

“The reasoning of the trial court cannot be faulted despite its findings on the other seven counts,” she said.

“The circumstantial evidence gave rise to a reasonable conclusion that Chidemo was involved in opening the bank account with Standard Bank and that he transferred or was involved in the transfer of VAT funds into the account and withdrew the money from the account for his own benefit.”

The finding that Chidemo used his wife’s CABS account and accessed the funds from the account, Justice Chatukuta said, was consistent with the testimony before the trial court, hence the defence offered by Chidemo to the two counts was not reasonably probable.

She dismissed the appeal for lacking merit.