daniel chigunwe
Yeukai Karengezeka
Court Correspondent
A SUSPECTED fraudster who allegedly duped 53 nurse aides of US$46 000 by falsely promising to process their certificates of sponsorship to go and work in the United Kingdom, has appeared in court.
Takunda McDonald Pfende (38) appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Dennis Mangosi on Monday charged with fraud.
He was released on US$300 bail and was remanded to November 28 pending finalisation of investigations.
Prosecuting, Ms Grace Mugocheke alleged that in May, Pfende in the company of an accomplice, Daphne Edwards, who is still at large, approached Mr Blessing Gwengwe (50), who runs an education and employment agency.
He told Mr Gwengwe that he had the capacity to offer his students a certificate of sponsorship to the UK to work as nurse aides.
As a result, Mr Gwengwe referred 53 applicants to Pfende who charged each of them US$850 for the sponsorship certificate.
Acting on the misrepresentation, Mr Gwengwe collected US$46 000 from his 53 students and sent the money using Mukuru.com money transfer agency, and Access Forex, into Pfende’s account. But once the money was there, Pfende became unreachable.
Mr Gwengwe filed a report with the police.
The court heard that on Saturday, Mr Gwengwe received a tip-off that Pfende was attending a family function at his home and advised police, who apprehended him at that function.
No money has been recovered as yet.
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