dyton mupawaenda
Court Correspondent
A CHINESE dealer based in South Africa who last year defrauded Sunny Yi Feng Tiles Company based in Norton of R2,7 million by buying tiles using fake proofs of payment on three occasions has been fined US$2 000.
Hu Dong was convicted by Harare regional magistrate Mrs Letwin Rwodzi on his own plea of guilty to fraud.
In mitigation, through his lawyer Mr Melusi Muchada, he submitted that the tile company was fully restituted the amount and handed over a letter from Sunny Yi Feng Tiles confirming this.
In default of making those payments, Hu was sentenced to 12 months jail with an additional 12 months wholly suspended on condition that he does not commit a similar offence in the future.
On June 17 last year, Hu came to Zimbabwe and misrepresented to the tiles company that he had capacity to buy floor tiles valued at R 1 007 224.
Hu sent a fake proof of payment purporting that he had transferred R1 007 224 from his South African Standard Bank account into Sunny Yi Feng’s Ecobank account.
He took the tiles and delivered them somewhere unknown in South Africa.
On August 24, last year, Hu used a similar method of operation and delivered floor tiles worth R649 952 to an unknown destination in South Africa, sending a fake proof of payment.
On November 28 last year, Hu again tried his luck and was given tiles worth R1 019 884.
But when this month Hu went to went to Sunny Yi Feng Tiles and tried for a fourth time to order floor tiles that cost US$45 000, the company had already discovered his proofs of payment for the previous three orders were fake.
When Hu was confronted about the issue, he promised to address the issue and was offered accommodation at the company premises.
In a bid to escape from the company premises, Hu tied sheets taken from the first floor of the building where he was accommodated and attempted to escape through the window, but was arrested by a security guard after a struggle as he was very aggressive to the security personnel.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter