Fraudster teacher jailed 12 months

A TEACHER who tricked his counterparts by using their credentials to apply for loans from banks and converted the proceeds to his own use has been slapped with a 12-month-jail-term.

Dominic Dhlamini (29), was convicted of three counts of fraud as defined in Section 136 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23 by provincial magistrate Mr Tendai Mahwe.

His co-accused person, Tatenda Cosmas Teya (30) was however, acquitted of the charges after the full trial.

Two months were however suspended on condition of good behaviour for five years and a further six months were suspended on condition that he restitutes the complainants of their money.

He will serve an effective four months.

Mr Cuthbert Bhosha represented the State.

The suspects are denying the fraud charges.

In December 2017, Dhlamini approached Mr Richard Chimhiti, who is also a teacher and asked him if he was interested in the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) exercise.

He then told Mr Chimhiti that he could link him with those responsible for the recruitment.

When Mr Chimhiti showed interest, Dhlamini asked for his original payslip and photocopy of his national identity card.

“After obtaining these documents, Dhlamini went to Lion Micro Finance, Mutare branch and applied for a loan. He then went back to Mr Chimhiti and told him that he had sold their motor vehicle and the buyer was using a

CABS bank account, which he did not have.

“The complainant gave Dhlamini his CABS account number which he then used together with the particulars he had been given to apply for a loan of $2 800. This was without the complainant’s knowledge. Mr Chimhiti was going to be garnished a monthly instalment of $310 for 24 months from his bank account,” said Mr Bhosha.

On December 23, 2017 Lion Micro Finance deposited $2 590 into Mr Chimhiti’s bank account. Dhlamini asked Mr Chimhiti if he had received his money and asked him to transfer it into his (Dhlamini)’s CBZ account using the zipit system.

Dhlamini went back to Lion Micro Finance and topped the loan with another $500. When the money was deposited into Chimhiti’s account on January 4, 2018, Dhlamini instructed him to transfer the money into his CBZ account using the zipit system again.

Using the same modus operandi, Dhlamini used Patience Mukombwe’s particulars to apply for a loan of $2 000 from Credfin Micro Finance. He also instructed Mukombwe to transfer the money into his ecocash account. Mukombwe was to be garnished a monthly instalment of $267 for 24 months.

The complainants only realised that they had been duped when their accounts were garnished on January 22, 2018.

They went to the salary service bureau to inquire about the deducted money and were informed that they had applied for loans from the different micro finance companies.