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Court Reporter
A city businesswoman lost more than US$9 000 to her chauffeur, who allegedly stole her ATM card and made several cash withdrawals without her consent.
Cheidi Siki (25) withdrew US$8 000 cash from the woman’s account and used the card to buy groceries from different supermarkets worth US$1 100.
Siki has since appeared before magistrate Mr Tendai Mahwe charged with theft.
He was remanded to January 27 on US$100 bail.
Prosecutor Miss Sharon Mashavira alleged that sometime in May last year, the complainant (name not supplied) returned from church in the company of Siki.
She discovered that her bedroom had been broken into.
She asked Siki to help her check if anything could have been stolen from the room.
In the process, it is alleged, Siki came across his employer’s ATM card, which was in an envelope together with the personal identity number (PIN) written on a piece of paper.
He then memorised the PIN and replaced the envelope and the card unnoticed.
After some weeks, Siki allegedly stole the ATM card from the complainant’s bedroom.
On July 27, Siki, using the bank card, went on a shopping spree and bought groceries worth more than US$600 from OK supermarket.
The following day, the State alleges, Siki withdrew US$4 000 from the same account. He further withdrew another US$4 000 on August 2.
He went on to buy groceries worth US$473 on the same day, the court heard.
After all these transactions, the State alleged that Siki returned the ATM card into the complainant’s room.
The offence came to light on December 9 after the complainant went to deposit money into the account and requested for a bank statement. She was surprised to discover that the account had only US$3 632.
She then approached the branch manager, who confirmed that indeed there were withdrawals, some of which were done in Chinhoyi.
A police report was made and investigations led to Siki’s arrest.
Online Reporter