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Prosper Dembedza Herald Correspondent
A 30-year-old director at a car dealing concern, Evast Online has appeared in court on allegations of using a fake rebate letter to import vehicles.
Conwell Tanaka Muchenje was facing fraud charges when he appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Donald Ndirowei.
He was freed on US$300 bail.
Sometime in September, 2022 Muchenje approached Tida Zim Motors in Estlea, Harare who was buying cars for clients through vehicle agent Be-Forward Japan.
After perusing the available motor vehicles online, Muchenje preferred an Audi Q4 motor vehicle and he paid USD$1540 as deposit towards the purchase.
The court heard that Muchenje indicated that he intended to import the motor vehicle through the civil servants’ rebate scheme.
He proceeded to produce a copy of a national identity card belonging to Francis Mutizwa Samuriwo and the purchase of the motor vehicle was initiated to Be-forward in the name of the latter.
It is alleged that Muchenje, with the intention to deceive the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, (Zimra) and working in connivance with his co-accused Never Nyatsine who is still at large, was given a copy of Francis Mutizwa Samuriwo identity card.
Samuriwo is a former driver at the Ministry of Local Governance and Public.
The card was used in generating the invoice that would be used for the application to import the vehicle under the Civil Servants Motor Vehicle Rebate Scheme.
In furtherance of their common objective, Muchenje gave Nyatsine a copy of the invoice for purposes of making an application to the Ministry of Finance in the name of Samuriwo without his knowledge and misrepresented that he was the one applying for authority to import the motor vehicle.
Before the fraudulent application for rebate letter could be processed, Muchenje working in connivance with Shingirai Chikazhe and an officer at Zimra identified as Mbada, generated a fake rebate letter dated January 2, 2022 with reference number 9/28/3/207/23.
The court heard that Muchenje then gave the fake rebate letter to Henry Gowanyika of Tida Zim Motors who is an agent, misrepresenting that the importation of the vehicle under the rebate scheme and in the name of Samuriwo had been duly authorised when in actual fact that was not true.
The agent, believing that the rebate was genuine, proceeded to Beitbridge for clearance of the vehicle.
At the border post, Alfijio Chesula, who is an agent, presented the fake rebate letter to a Zimra officer for clearance of the vehicle.
The officer was deceived into believing that the rebate letter was genuine and acting upon the misrepresentation, processed and cleared the vehicle without paying duty.
Online Reporter