Farmer (67) in the dock

appeared in court charged with fraud.
Sandy Watson Macleod was not formally charged when he appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Shane Kubonera who remanded him out of custody to June 23 this year.
The informant in the matter is Margaret Anne Pereira who is Mcleod’s cousin.
Their late grandfather Herbert Thompson owned Umzari Agricultural Lot 1 in Chinhoyi measuring 101 974 acres and he left it for his children.
Prosecutor Ms Vernancia Mtake alleges that sometime in 2009 Macleod went to the Deeds Office and fraudulently acquired a title deed 4839/09 in his name after misrepresenting that he was the sole surviving family member.
In November 2010, it is alleged, the complainant went to her lawyer Mr Kimberly Senior of Honey and Blanckenberg in order to obtain the original title deed of the estate of their late parents. She was referred to the Deeds Office.
At the Deeds Office she discovered that the title deed in her parents’ names was missing and in its place there was the fraudulently acquired document in the name of Macleod giving him entitlement of the whole property.
On further inquiries from her lawyers she was advised to approach Mr Chigwada a lawyer who had processed the papers. Mr Chigwada confirmed that the deed acquired by Macleod was used to secure a loan from CBZ Bank were it was being held as surety for the US$30 000 loan. As a result the complainant suffered prejudice of US$1 290 000.