Chronicle Editor
Lisa Mangena, Court Reporter
TWO more Choppies supermarket till operators from Bulawayo have been arrested for allegedly stealing about $ 2 300 after hacking the shop’s systems.
Precious Moyo and Rachel Sibanda appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Mr Tinashe Tashaya and pleaded not guilty to fraud or alternatively, theft charges.
They were remanded out of custody to next week for trial.
On Monday another till operator at the retail outlet, Sibusisiwe Sibanda (24), appeared before Bulawayo magistrate, Mr Tinashe Tashaya, for allegedly stealing $3 041 using the same method.
Her case continues today.
Yesterday, the prosecutor Mr Nkathazo Dlodlo said Moyo defrauded a Choppies outlet that was represented by branch manager Mr Dumiso Nyoni while Sibanda defrauded a Choppies outlet represented by branch manager Mr Caleb Ncube.
“The two would manipulate the systems and enter fake EcoCash amounts. However the customer would receive a receipt with the actual amount they paid for their goods,” he said.
The court heard how the two allegedly made dummy transactions into the systems in order to get money.
Moyo and Sibanda would charge goods by scanning them at the till, the system would give a value of goods that would have been scanned and they would manually substitute it with a dummy amount.
Mr Dlodlo said the matter came to light when the accountants checked the EcoCash statements and discovered abnormalities.
“The accountants realised that the figures from the service provider did not tally with that which were on the companies’ bank deposit slips,” he said.
Moyo allegedly defrauded the shop of $ 1 561 while Nyoni allegedly defrauded another branch of $ 800.
Investigations were made on both supermarkets leading to the arrest of Moyo and Sibanda.
From the total $ 2 361 that was lost, nothing was recovered.
– @LissahMangena
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