Chido Nyamuyaruka
Court Correspondent
Suspected fraudster John Ngoma appeared in court yesterday for allegedly duping a man of $2,5 million in a business deal.
He was remanded to Monday next week by Harare provincial magistrate Mr Dennis Mangosi. The court heard that, on Friday last week Ngoma and his co-accused, who is still at large, phoned a person who had advertised tarpaulin tents on Facebook marketplace.
Ngoma who was allegedly plausible, said he was based in Gweru and would send someone to collect the tents with the handover at the corner of Gamal Abdel Nasser Road and Belvedere Road, just a block south from the Harare Magistrates Court where he was taken yesterday. Ngoma himself met the supplier and told him that the person paying for the tents was in South Africa and would use World Remit to send the money. The supplier then received a message on his phone showing that US$2 550 was sent to him through World Remit and released the tents to Ngoma, who loaded them into his car driven by the accomplice.
The supplier then went down to CBZ bank to collect the money but when the bank checked its system, they realised that the proof of payment was fake. The supplier rushed to the World Remit office on the off chance that it was some network problem, and received the same bad news, that the proof of payment was fake. So he went to the police, who moved fast and arrested Ngoma, who yesterday was back in Gamal Abel Nasser Road, but this time in the back of the police vehicle in handcuffs and about to visit the Magistrates Court.



