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Peter Matika, Senior Reporter
THREE Bulawayo men have appeared in court, on allegations of cyber fraud, where they are accused of cloning a bank card and potentially defrauding a complainant of $6 300.
The three — Arthur Japa, Tendayi Pasipamire and Audious Mutengwa were arrested on Thursday last week. They appeared before magistrate Miss Nomasiko Ndlovu yesterday facing charges of cybercrime. Pasipamire and Mutengwa were remanded out custody on $100 bail, while Japa was granted $50 bail as he was ordered to pay $100 bail on another case, for possession of fake US dollar notes. They were remanded to 2 July this year for trial.
The three were represented by Mr Tatenda Razemba from Nyaworive Legal Practitioners. According to the State, as presented by Mr Nathan Marime, on 20 June at around 6pm, one of the men — Japa approached the complainant Mr Everight Furusa, who owns Upstream Hardware.
“He told him he wanted to conduct a transaction using a swipe card to buy cement and requested that he delays in closing for the day, as he was in the process of carrying out the transaction. After having reached an agreement Japa went away on the understanding he was going to call his colleague who had the card. After a while the second accused Pasipamire went to the shop with a One Wallet card and conducted a transaction to purchase 50 bags of cement worth RTGS$3 150,” said Mr Marime.
The court heard the he also bought termite poison and locksets and was issued with a receipt. The value to the termite poison and locksets was not stated.
“They told Furusa the goods were destined for Maphisa. That is when he became suspicious of them, as they went a different direction from Maphisa. He then called the police leading to their arrest along Harare Road. The cement had been offloaded from the vehicle they were using and was being loaded onto a truck heading back to town. They were questioned and searched where the receipts were recovered,” said Mr Marime.
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