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Fungai Jachi Court Reporter
Douglas Mwonzora’s legal partner Joseph Terera (44) appeared in court on Monday on allegations of theft of trust property. Terera and Mwonzora, who has since been arrested over the same offence, allegedly withdrew $15 000 meant to settle a client’s debt with a bank.
Terera appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Milton Serima who remanded him to December 15 on $250 bail.
The prosecutor Ms Sharon Mashavira alleged that in 2012, Mr Justin Matenda, who is a project manager at a local mining firm, obtained a $200 000 loan from Ecobank that was supposed to be settled within one year.
Matenda failed to pay back the money, resulting in him being sued by Ecobank in July 2014.
The court was told that an agreement was made between Ecobank and Mr Matenda that resulted in him having to pay $15 000 a month for 12 months.
Allegations are that in the lawsuit, Mr Matenda was represented by Tendai Toto from Mwonzora and Associates law firm in which Terera is a partner.
Toto allegedly told Mr Matenda that all payments were to be done through the law firm’s Barclays Bank account.
The court heard that on August 5, Mr Matenda deposited an initial $15 000 into this account which has Terera and Mwonzora as signatories.
The court heard that Mr Matenda continued to receive letters from Ecobank indicating that they were yet to receive anything since the payment plan had been agreed upon.
It is the State’s case that Mr Matenda then approached Terera’s law firm and was continuously given different excuses, including that the money had been deposited into a trust account.
Mr Matenda continued to follow-up on the payment, but was met with more excuses prompting him to make a report to the police.
Investigations revealed that the money deposited by Mr Matenda was allegedly withdrawn by Terera and Mwonzora, who are suspected of having converted it to their own use.
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