UZ student up for $16m airtime theft

A UNIVERSITY of Zimbabwe student, who was on attachment at NetOne, has been hauled to court facing theft of property worth $16 196 143.

Delight Ncube was ordered to deposit $100 000 bail when he appeared before Harare magistrate Dennis Mangosi.

He will be back in court on January 25 next year pending finalisation of investigations.

It is the State’s case that on July 1 last year, Ncube was attached at NetOne headquarters in Harare.

He was due to complete his attachment on July 1 this year.

When he commenced the attachment, Ncube was given a NetOne post-paid staff line number, one access point line and one HP laptop for use.

It is alleged that between November and December last year, Ncube terminated his attachment and surrendered the HP laptop, but kept the lines.

It is further alleged that sometime in August this year, Ncube gained access to recharge the line through NetOne’s recharge platform.

The court heard that Ncube was aware that the post-paid staff line had access to unlimited data and talk time.

He then started to advertise data bundles for sale at a lower price.

It is alleged that Ncube also engaged a friend, Tanaka Handina, to assist him advertise and sell data on commission.

Ncube ran out of luck when NetOne officials came across a Facebook advertisement, which showed that data bundles were being sold at a lower price than the official one.

The mobile network operator conducted investigations and discovered that the data bundles were being recharged from a post-paid NetOne staff line.

They discovered that Ncube was the one using the line during his internship and he did not surrender it.

In October, NetOne blocked the line, but Ncube managed to gain access and continued selling NetOne data bundles and converting the money to his personal use.

The matter was reported to the police, which led to Ncube’s arrest.

Zebedia Bofu prosecuted.