Pension fraud lands couple in trouble

A BIKITA man and his wife who squandered his late brother’s $15 000 pension has been sentenced to 420 hours of community service.

Micah Mbarwi (54) and his wife Anna Chiweshe (47) pleaded not guilty to fraud, but the couple was convicted after a full trial.

Harare magistrate Mr Lazini Ncube, sentenced the couple to two years before setting aside six months for five years.

Another six months were suspended on condition that the couple restitute the Pensions Office of $7 500.

The remaining year was suspended on condition that they performed 420 hours of community service.

The couple was also ordered to compensate the deceased’s daughter of $7 500 and the case is to be registered as a civil claim.

The court heard that sometime in 1983, Mbarwi’s late brother Parwaringira Shatei, who was a member of the Zimbabwe National Army got married to Winfrida Chisiri.

Shatei passed on in 1994 and soon after his burial, Mbarwi chased away Chisiri and her child Cynthia and went on to obtain his late brother’s death certificate at Karoi District Registry.

In February 1995, Chiweshe and Mbarwi went to the Bikita Registrar of Birth and Death, where they misrepresented that Chiweshe was married to the late Shatei and they had two children together.

The couple claimed that the first child was born in April 1991 and the second in August 1994.

They obtained birth certificates for both children.

Armed with the two birth certificates and the letter of administration, they went to the Pensions Office in Harare and applied for the widow’s pension.

Chiweshe used the two birth certificates and the letter of administration to support her claim.

The Pensions Office processed the funds and Chiweshe received $15 000 in the period between 1996 and March 2011 in widow’s pension and monthly pension for the two children.

The offence came to light in February last year when Cynthia made follow-ups with the Pensions Office and discovered that the money had already been signed for.

She informed her mother, who in turn made a report to the police.