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Prosper Dembedza Herald Correspondent
A MAN from Harare has appeared in court on allegations of forging and supplying fake bank statements to support British visa applications.
Luke Sibanda (25) appeared before Harare magistrate Mrs Marehwanazvo Gofa on forgery charges and was granted US$300 bail.
It is the State’s case that the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission received information that Sibanda was supplying fake bank statements to support a UK visa application.
A ZACC officer went undercover, purporting to seek a UK visa and approached Sibanda so he could facilitate a bank statement. It is alleged that Sibanda confirmed that he was in position to make the bank statements and charged US$160 as a facilitation fee.
After the transaction, Sibanda contacted the investigator on Friday last week saying the bank statement was ready for collection. On Monday, a team of ZACC officers met Sibanda, who brought a fake NMB Bank statement for account number 280460184.
The investigators recovered a number of fake bank statements, fake letters of recommendation on different letterheads and fake date stamps for various organisations.
Sibanda, it is alleged, with an intention to deceive the UK embassy, unlawfully and intentionally manufactured a fake bank statement to misrepresent that a bank account had US$5 271 yet the account had a balance of US$13,74.
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