NetOne employee in US$24k airtime theft

Paidamoyo Bore

A NetOne employee has appeared in court for defrauding the mobile network operator of airtime worthy US$24 000.

Wiseman Bote, 39, was granted $200 000 bail when he appeared before Harare Magistrate Dennis Mangosi.

He will be back in court on March 27.

Wiseman is a customer care representative responsible for selling data bundles and airtime, among other duties.

The State said from December last year to this month, Wiseman created 25 gigabytes and 50 gigabytes data bundles which NetOne was not offering.

He did not include the bundles in his daily report sheets. 

The court was told that Wiseman started selling the data bundles to various NetOne clients.

On February 15, NetOne noticed the anomaly and reported the matter to the police leading to Wiseman’s arrest.

It is alleged that from the proceeds of the fraud, he purchased three Samsung S21, one S21 Plus and S21 Ultra, an inverter and a lithium battery. Grace Mugocheke appeared for the State.