adminMasvingo Bureau
A CHIREDZI lawyer has been ordered to perform 210 hours of community service after he connived with a fellow worker to defraud his employer of US$7 000 in the sugar cane growing town. Andrew Hamandishe (36) who was employed at Kwirira and Magwaliba Legal Practitioners in Chiredzi together with a secretary at the firm Caroline Mahau (33) defrauded the employer of US$6 985 after using the firm’s condemned receipt book to collect cash from clients.
The pair were this week convicted of 41 counts of fraud on their own plea of guilty by Chiredzi magistrate Mr Taengwa Chibanda.
Mr Chibanda had initially slapped the two with a one-year jail term each but suspended three months on condition of good behaviour.
Another three months of the sentence was set aside on condition Hamandishe and Mahau restitute Kwirira and Magwaliba law firm US$4 470 on or before 31 December this year. The remaining six months were commuted to 210 hours each of community service.
Hamandishe will do the unpaid work at Chiredzi poly clinic while Mahau will be at the Chiredzi magistrates court.
Agreed facts are that between September last year and March this year the pair connived to use a condemned receipt book to collect cash from Kwirira and Magwaliba clients.
They used a receipt book that was condemned by the firm after a misprint of the firm’s name which read Kwirira and Magwalimba instead of Kwirira and Magwaliba.
The pair collected US$6 985 which they converted to their own use during this period and the matter came to light after some of the clients went to the law firm with the condemned receipts seeking legal services.
The duo managed to pay back US$2 515 but were arrested after failing to pay back all the money to Mr Clement Kwirira who oversees operations at Kwirira and Magwaliba law firm in Chiredzi.
Mr Prosper Chipangura appeared for the State.
Online Reporter