adminWalter Mswazie Masvingo Correspondent
TWO prominent Masvingo lawyers have been sucked in a $38,000 fake stand sale involving three Harare-based fraudsters. Dumisani Hwacha of Hwacha and Ndlovu Legal Practitioners and Collins Maboke of Maboke and Ruvengo Legal Practitioners were on two different occasions, allegedly made to witness fraudulent transactions.
The three alleged fraudsters, Fortunate Mushate, 47, Hilton Maponga, 24 and Lucia Chadokwa, 38 of Harare were not asked to plead when they appeared before Masvingo provincial magistrate Langton Ndokera on Wednesday. Nancy Makuvise for the State told the court that on May, 16 this year, Mushate, Maponga and Chadokwa connived to defraud unsuspecting home seekers and placed a false advertisement in a daily newspaper to the effect that they were selling a residential stand in the posh suburb of Rhodene.
The stand price was pegged at $18,000 and they purported the owner was Elizabeth Chikwaka. The court heard that after seeing the advertisement, Shelton Nyakuchena from Masvingo called the trio believing that the residential stand existed.
Makuvise said one of the accused persons invited Nyakuchena for a meeting in Masvingo to arrange payment and processing of paper work.
Mushate, Maponga and Chadokwa, the court heard, travelled to Masvingo where they met Nyakuchena.
The trio allegedly duped him into paying for the stand at Maboke and Ruvengo Legal Practitioners using forged Deed of Transfer and national identity card forged in the name of Elizabeth Chikwaka. The court heard that the three placed another advertisement in the same paper on June, 25 stating that they were selling a residential for $15,000.
Makuvise said another Masvingo resident, Kufakunesu Panganai phoned inquiring about the stand and met with the trio at CABS Building Society Bank in Masvingo.
He said an agreement of sale was crafted in the name of Ricky Mrehwa.The court heard Panganai paid $10,000 and was promised a deed of transfer, after settling the balance of $5,000 in seven days.When Panganai attempted to phone, the court heard, the trio was no longer reachable.
Mukuvise said another complainant, Tinashe Mangwiro, saw the same advertisement and contacted the trio.
“Mangwiro met Mushate, Maponga and Chadokwa at Hwacha and Ndlovu Legal Practitioners offices along Hofmeyer Street where an agreement of sale was crafted. The complainant paid the accused, $10,000 with the balance of $5,000 said to be payable after the initial clearance by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra),” said Makuvise.
When Mangwiro tried to get in touch with the accused after the transaction, their phones were no longer reachable, the court heard.
The prosecutor said all hell broke loose when the trio made a fourth advertisement in the same paper on August, 28.
“Acting on a tip off police detectives masqueraded as potential buyers and trapped the accused leading to the arrest of the three accused,” Makuvise told the court.
The court heard that the three were intercepted and were found in possession of a fake deed of transfer and the national identity card bearing the name of Elizabeth Chikwaka.
Online Reporter