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Fidelis Munyoro Chief Court Reporter
FORMER Chitungwiza town clerk Godfrey Tanyanyiwa has suffered a setback after the High Court upheld the conviction and a two-and-a half year sentence imposed on him seven years ago for swindling the local authority of over US$80 000.
Justice Pisiriayi Kwenda, sitting with the then High Court Justice Felistus Chatukuta, however, cleared Tanyanyiwa on the charge pertaining to concealing a personal interest from a principal (Chitungwiza Municipality), in which he was ordered to pay US$300 fine or a month in jail.
Tanyanyiwa was in September 2013 convicted on three counts of fraud and concealing from a principal a personal interest in a transaction.
He appealed against convictions and sentences. But Justice Pisirayi Kwenda upheld the conviction and sentence imposed on Tanyanyiwa.
He ruled that Tanyanyiwa benefited from the fraudulent transaction when he used the funds ostensible meant for the payment for servicing of Nyatsime residential stands to buy his own property.
“He set the disbursement in motion without any legitimate paper work which justified disbursement by the council for his benefit,” said Justice Kwenda writing the judgment for the court.
“The circumstances permitted no other reasonable inference other than the appellant defrauded Chitungwiza municipality and was properly convicted.
“In the result, we find no misdirection by the trial court which warrants interfering with the conviction with respect to counts 1 and 9.”
His lawyer Advocate Tazorora Musarurwa did not make submissions on the sentence imposed by the trial court thereby abandoning the appeal against sentence.
But during the appeal hearing, Tanyanyiwa’s legal counsel made several concessions to the objections raised by the prosecution to the validity of the defence grounds of appeal.
It was the prosecution submission on count one that the misrepresentation made by Tanyanyiwa was clear and indisputable resulting in the actual prejudice the municipality suffered after it released US$80 000 on the strength of falsified documents for his personal use.
It was argued that when the false documents were created it was intended to cause the municipality to act on them. This, the prosecution submitted that the unescapable conclusion was that Tanyanyiwa was complicity in the falsehoods because he benefited from the crime.
The trial court sentenced Tanyanyiwa to six years in jail, but set aside 18 months on condition of good behaviour.
A further two years were suspended on condition that Tanyanyiwa restitutes US$80 000 to Chitungwiza Municipality by December 30. He was also slapped with one year on another count of prejudicing the council of US$6 500.
The prosecution in the lower court proved that Tanyanyiwa, knowing that he had no money to buy a house, hatched a plan to defraud Chitungwiza Municipality and took US$80 000 from the council to buy a house in Chisipite.
He also corruptly concealed his personal interest in a transaction from a principal during the period extending from September to December in 2011 when he offered the Chisipite house through his estate agent for rental to Chitungwiza director of urban planning Mr Conrad Muchesa.
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