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Fungai Lupande Court Reporter
A senior consultant with RCI Travel and Tours recently appeared in court for under-invoicing holidaymakers travelling to local and international destinations, swindling the company of $40 000.
Esther Kabichi (36) is facing theft of trust property charges.
She appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Tendai Mahwe on Friday and was remanded to June 5 on $100 bail.
As her bail conditions, Kabichi was ordered to surrender her passport, report every Monday at CID Serious Frauds and not to interfere with State witnesses.
The complainant in the matter is RCI Zimbabwe, a registered travel and tours agency represented by its general manager, Ms Karen Kennedy.
Prosecutor Mrs Idah Mateke-Maromo told the court that as a senior consultant Kabichi’s duties included making holiday bookings, receiving and receipting cash.
It is alleged that Kabichi would confirm local and regional holiday bookings for various clients.
Between June 2012 and July 2014 Kabichi received various amounts from clients booking for local and international holidays.
It is alleged that she wrote the correct amount on the original copy of the receipt without a carbon paper.
She allegedly stole $40 295 and as a cover-up, she would put a carbon copy on another copy of receipts before writing lesser amounts.
For international clients who paid through bank transfers, it is alleged that Kabichi did not issue original receipts but instead wrote the amount on the carbon copy and send a confirmation letter of the booking to the client.
She would then convince the client that the confirmation letter was sufficient, it is alleged.
Later, Kabichi would delete month-end reports which required her to reconcile bookings with revenue before forwarding it to management. The offence came to light on August 18 last year after a client cancelled a booking and sought a refund.
An audit led to Kabichi’s arrest.
Online Reporter