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Prosper Dembedza-Court Correspondent
Two Harare lawyers have appeared in court on allegations of offering conveyancing to two suspected land barons who manufactured fake documents to dupe a Chinese businessman of US$435 000 in a land deal.
Proud Fambisai Mutuso and Happy Magadure, as well as a messenger Lineker Manyasi were jointly charged with suspected bogus land seller Mavis Madzivanzira and Kizito Chikowore when they appeared before magistrate Mrs Marehwanazvo Gofa.
The five were granted US$300 each.
The court heard that the five accused persons decided to defraud prospective home and commercial land seekers in and around Harare.
They used Chikowore’s vast knowledge of the Harare City Council land bank to identify two vacant stands in Helensvale, Harare measuring 4061 and 4044 square meters respectively.
The accused forged title deeds for the two stands as well as special power of attorney under the names of Cathrine Mverechena purportedly authorising Madzivanzira to act on her behalf during the fraudulent transactions.
It is the State’s case that the accused advertised the said stands for sale on social media.
Sometime in October 2022, the complainant who was looking for commercial land to build some cluster houses informed his business partner Terence Ncube and he was later linked to Madzivanzira who misrepresented to him that she had a commercial stand that was on sale in Helensvale, Harare.
Sometime later, the complainant was taken to view stand number 387 Hellensvale by Madzivanzira and was interested in acquiring it.
During the process, Madzivanzira further misrepresented to the complainant that stand number 477 in the same area was also available for sale.
The complainant indicated that he was interested in acquiring both stands and they agreed on a price of US$115 000. During the period extending from November 2022 to February 2023, the complainant paid the full purchase price of the two stands at Mutuso’s office.
The complainant also paid US$15 000 for conveyancing.
After a while, the complainant was issued with title deeds for the two properties by Magadure.
On another day in 2023, Madzivanzira misrepresented to the complainant that she was selling 13 hectares of land in Newlands, Harare.
The complainant was taken to view the said property by Madzivanzira and agreed to purchase it for US$1 800 000.
Thereafter, the complainant paid US$190 000 as capital gains tax and deeds stamp duty to Madzivanzira.
Magadure and Manyasi allegedly did the conveyancing process that resulted in the issuance of a title deed under the complainant’s names.
The offence came to light sometime in August 2024 when the complainant proceeded to the Hellensvale properties where he met someone who told him that the said stands belonged to someone else.
The complainant went to the Deeds Office where he was informed that the three title deeds he had been given were fake.
The complainant tried to engage the accused persons and they became evasive.
He made a police report, leading to the arrest of the accused persons on September 25, 2024.
The complainant suffered an actual prejudice of US$435 000 and nothing was recovered.
Online Reporter