Online Reporter
CONCELLIA MAHEYA was a Harare lawyer with the confidence of a prophet at a nightclub and ethics of a pickpocket in a church queue.
Maheya — formerly of Maseko Law Chambers — has bagged herself a cosy one-year prison stay.
The charge? Theft of trust property.
Translation: She stole someone’s dream and sold it back to them.
The plot (thicker than cheap peanut butter)
The drama began in October 2021 when Mercy Kabvara wanted to buy a residential stand. Enter estate agent Templeton P. Chadyiwa, who showed her stand number 2308, Bluffhill Township, Harare. All seemed legit.
Then came Maheya. Draped in her lawyerly robes, she claimed to represent the owner, one Zvatinowona Tsitsi Kujeke, who, spoiler alert, is currently “at large”.
With the smoothness of a con artist who actually passed law school, Maheya allegedly produced a fake deed of transfer.
She then pocketed US$30 000 for the stand plus a cheeky US$500 for conveyancing.
The ghosting phase
After the cash changed hands, Maheya mastered the ancient art of disappearing.
Weeks passed. Kabvara called. No answer. She texted. Left on read by a lawyer — the ultimate disrespect. Finally, Kabvara did something Maheya clearly forgot to do: check with the Deeds Office.
The real stand had been sold back in 2018 — to someone named Collen Kapende, a man who actually owned the property. Cornered on December 3, 2022, Maheya did not apologise.
She did not refund. Instead, she offered Kabvara Lot 327 Block B, Hatfield — a house Maheya had zero legal authority to sell.
How cheeky? By February 23, 2023, reality finally knocked.
Maheya signed an acknowledgement of debt for US$30 000. But paper means nothing when your signature is on a fake deed.
US$30 500 — That is the price of trusting a lawyer who forgot that “trust property” does not mean “property you can trust yourself to steal”.
Moral of the story
When your lawyer starts selling mystery properties and ghosting you faster than data bundles, run. Concellia Maheya — take a bow.
We can only hope that behind bars, she finally reads the actual Act on property and conveyancing — not the fake one she printed at home. By the way, her stay in prison might be extended if she fails to restitute Kabvara.
