admin
Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Court Reporter
Primrose Jecha, the woman who misrepresented that her husband had died and defrauded Old Mutual Funeral Services of $70 000, was yesterday jailed for five years for fraud.
Rusape regional magistrate Mr Livingston Chipadza, however, acquitted Jecha of the charges of violating a corpse and that of burning a hired Toyota Spacio.
Jecha (22) is wife to David Garudzo (27), who allegedly connived with his two brothers and a friend and killed a drunk man at Odzi in Manicaland before burning the body in a hired vehicle in a bid to fake his own death. Garudzo is currently serving 23 years in prison for violating a corpse, fraud, malicious damage to property and illegal possession of a firearm. Investigations are still in progress on the murder allegations. The court, however, considered Jecha’s submissions in mitigation and suspended two years from the sentence, leaving her to serve three years effective. During mitigation, Jecha’s lawyer Mr Farai Matinhuri of Gonese, Ndlovu and Partners, pleaded with the court for a lighter sentence saying his client did not benefit from the $70 000 fraud.
The court heard that Jecha surrendered all the money to her husband and his brothers to share. The husband only bought her clothes and food while the men shared the bulk of the money. It was Jecha’s submission that she genuinely believed that her husband had died until a week after the burial when she was approached to go and claim the money.
Jecha indicated that she was also threatened with death if she refused to make the claim at Old Mutual. Her lawyer asked the court to impose community service as an appropriate penalty for the offence.
However, in aggravation, Rusape district public prosecutor Mr Tirivanhu Mutyasira said the offence was serious and that the woman should be jailed. Mr Mutyasira dismissed claims by Jecha that she was under pressure to make a false claim saying she should have simply reported to the police.
The murder was allegedly committed mid-last year and the corpse was burnt in a hired vehicle at Takunda Dam in Mangoromera Village.
A false report was made to the police that Garudzo had died in a road accident and that police attended and ferried the corpse. Police later waived the burial of the corpse and the Garudzo family buried the stranger’s body in their community graveyard. A few days later Jecha and Garudzo’s relatives, armed with a fake death certificate, burial order, traffic accident report, national identity card and a copy of the funeral policy, went to Old Mutual offices where they claimed funeral benefits to the tune of $70 000.
Jecha and the Garudzo brothers went into hiding at a traditional healer’s place in Rusape. When David was arrested in Harare early this month, Jecha left Rusape for South Africa but was arrested in Beitbridge.
Online Reporter