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Tendai Rupapa Senior Court Reporter
A bank worker has been arrested on allegations of swindling his employer of more than US$28 000. Tinomudaishe Chitonga (27), a reconciliation officer at an international bank with operations in Zimbabwe, yesterday appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Donald Ndirowei charged with fraud.
He was remanded to February 3 on US$200 bail coupled with stringent conditions, among them surrendering his passport and reporting twice a week to the police.
According to the State, Chito- nga’s duties included reconciling bank card account balances and crediting or debiting customers with failed transactions.
Prosecutor Miss Sharon Mashavira told the court that between August 2013 and January this year, Chitonga connived with Ngoni Mutemaringa – who was still at large – to defraud the bank.
It is alleged that on several occasions Chitonga made fictitious details in reports concerning Visa card transactions, which he would send to the bank’s operations department for processing.
On the reports, it is alleged he would inflate the figures posted from the expense account to the suspense account.
The reports would then prompt the bank’s operations department to transfer the inflated amounts from the suspense account to Mutemaringa’s bank account, it is alleged.
It is the State’s case that Chitonga would then withdraw the money using his accomplice’s bank card and share the proceeds.
The alleged crime came to light after an audit by Chitonga’s supervisor, Robert Mugayi.
The bank reportedly suffered a total prejudice of US$28 157 with only US$$1 858 being recovered.
Online Reporter