Online Reporter
Danisa Masuku, [email protected]
A MAN who forged the signatures of company directors and stole more than US$60,000 has been sentenced to effectively serve three years in jail.
On Tuesday, Bulawayo regional magistrate Mr Taurai Manuwere convicted and sentenced Langton Chikwara (38) to seven years in prison.
One year was suspended on condition that he does not commit a similar offence within a period of five years. A further three years were suspended on condition that he restitutes US$60,756.37
In mitigation, the convict said: “I handled a lot of money and I was tempted to steal. I had a lot of problems and had to steal so as to solve my problems. I bought the house with the money I stole.”
In aggravation, Principal Prosecutor Mr Milton Moyo submitted that: “He breached the trust the directors of the company had in him. He carried out the offence in a sophisticated manner because he diverted the notifications, which were supposed to reflect on the directors’ mobile numbers, to his cellphone. He benefited from the crime as he bought a house and nothing was recovered.
“After the theft, the owners of the company were forced to retrench some employees because the theft plunged the company into a financial crisis. A community service or a fine will trivialise the matter. The State prays for a custodial sentence to send a message to like-minded people.”
The complainant is Busynest Marketing (Pvt) Limited, a company trading as Nigel West Mine, which was being represented by Khumbulani Mhlanga.
Principal prosecutor, Mr Moyo, told the court that Chikwara was an external accountant at Busynest Marketing (Pvt) Limited. Chikwara was entrusted with the responsibility of preparing and filing the company’s income tax returns with the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra), including ensuring that the correct amounts of tax were declared and paid in accordance with tax regulations.
“In 2023, he advised the complainant to open a bank account with one of the local banks, which would be used solely for receiving tax refund deposits from Zimra, and the complainant agreed to the advice,” Mr Moyo said.
“In pursuance of the advice, the fraudster brought to the complainant and two other directors bank account opening forms, which they completed, making themselves signatories to the account, and handed over the completed forms to him for submission to the bank,” said Mr Moyo.
Before the directors submitted the signed account opening forms, Chikwara discarded them and replaced them with his own forged account opening forms.
“On the forged account opening forms, he forged the signatures of the company directors and entered his cellphone number. This meant that all notifications regarding the account would be received only by the fraudster. As a result, he opened bank accounts for the complainant bearing the forged signatures of the directors,” the court heard.
On August 4, 2023, he wrote a representation authorisation letter addressed to the manager of a local bank.
“The letter purported to have been written by the company directors and sought to give authority to the fraudster to perform banking on the complainant’s account. The bank authorities recognised the fraudster as having authority to perform banking on behalf of the complainant, thereby acting as a signatory to the account so he could conduct any transactions involving the account,” the court was told.
In August 2023, after gaining authority to perform banking on the complainant’s bank account, Chikwara caused the transfer of US$1,200 from the complainant’s bank account to his own bank account.
On different occasions from September 2023 to 3 June 2025, Chikwara transferred a further US$5, 556.37 from the complainant’s bank account to his own bank account.
As a result of his conduct, the complainant has suffered a total loss of US$60 756.37 and nothing was recovered.
