adminShe is accused of stealing the money by act of misrepresentation that clients had withdrawn funds.
Sandra Mabodza, of 14 St Francis Road in Ilanda, was employed as a bank teller by Express Financial Services at the corner of Fife Street and 11th Avenue and was responsible for attending to collection and disbursement of cash to and from clients and completing of documents.
Express Finance Services is a money transfer agent through which people, especially those in the diaspora, send money home.
Contrary to her duties, Mabodza allegedly started duplicating clients’ transactions and defrauding the agency of the funds.
She was arrested on 31 December last year for the offence she is suspected of having committed between August and 31 December last year.
She was not asked to plead when she appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Mr Victor Mpofu facing a charge of stealing trust money.
Mabodza, who is represented by Mr Liberty Mcijo of Lazarus and Sarif, was remanded out of custody to 20 February at the regional court.
She was granted bail of $500 and instructed to reside at her given address, not to interfere with witnesses and to report to the Criminal Investigations Department Fraud Section once a week as part of her bail conditions.
Evidence linking Mabodza to the offence is that she was allegedly found in possession of a stolen radio, performed fraudulent transactions on the cashbook to cover up for the offences and records of money transfers she received from the head office for the transactions she was making.
The State will seek to prove that between August and December last year Mabodza misappropriated company funds that were entrusted to her as a bank teller.
The procedure was that for a client to withdraw any amount of money sent to him or her, he or she would produce proof of identification and reference number from the person who sent the money.
The court heard that the clients would then complete withdrawal slips in duplicate and give the bank teller for verification.
The teller would then update the information by deducting the amount withdrawn from the opening balance and then send the information to the accountant and directors via Internet.
The court heard that Mabodza allegedly did not do that but duplicated the transactions and converted $137 000 of clients’ money to her own use.
Only $19 000 was recovered.
Mr Trust Muduma appeared for the State.
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