Bogus house sellers jailed

Court Reporter
TWO Bulawayo men who duped a home-seeker into buying a non-existent house for R97 450 were yesterday each sentenced to eight years imprisonment. Zenzo Moyo (40) and Mthandazo Ncube (29) were sentenced by Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Martin Makonese after the case was referred to the High Court for sentence by the trial magistrate Mr Tawanda Muchemwa who felt his jurisdiction of two years was not adequate.

The two will however serve an effective five years each in prison after three years were suspended on condition that they restitute the complainant, Mr Handsome Dube the R97 450 by 31 December this year.

Moyo and Ncube committed the offence in connivance with a woman only identified as Kesi Ncube who is still at large.
They sold Mr Dube a house they purported was in Nkulumane 12.

Moyo of 61492 Pelandaba and Ncube of 9050/23 Pumula East had pleaded not guilty to the charge of fraud.
The State case was that the pair together with Kesi Ncube met Mr Dube who was looking for a house to buy in June last year.
They hatched a plan to defraud him by claiming that they were selling a house, Number 12579 Nkulumane 12 and took him there to view the property.

There were children at the house when the viewing took place and Mr Dube showed interest in the house.
He was then invited to a shebeen in Lobengula West where Kesi drafted an agreement of sale and he paid R97 450 for the house.
Mr Dube only discovered when he wanted to move into the house that he had been duped because the house did not belong to the trio and it was not for sale..