Bulawayo accountant charged with fraud, remanded to 14 January next year

Trish Mukwazo, [email protected]

A 68-YEAR-OLD Bulawayo accountant appeared in court yesterday for allegedly defrauding an unsuspecting man of R470 000 on the pretext of selling him a house.

George Witman Phiri of Nketa 7 suburb allegedly hatched a plan with Charles Mawire and Ronald Ndebele to defraud the victim, Mr Gilbert Ncube in 2018 by using fake documents to sell him a house in Queens Park suburb.

Phiri was  remanded to January 14 next year for trial.

Phiri is denying all the charges while his accomplice Ndebele was convicted in 2018 and served his term in prison. Mawire is still at large.

Prosecuting, Mr Owen Mugari told the court that sometime in September 2018, Mr Ncube approached Phiri looking for a house to buy and Phiri offered to assist him.

“Phiri connived with Mawire and Ndebele and the trio hatched a plan to defraud Ncube. Phiri called Ncube indicating that a house in Queens Park suburb was up for sale and produced fake title deeds for the house, a fake power of attorney that was giving Ndebele authority to sell the house as well as fake identity documents of a couple who were the registered owners of the property,” said Mr Mugari.

The court heard that on 15 October 2018, Ncube then made a payment of R280 000 and another payment of R190 000 three days later towards the purchase of the house. 

“Ncube later discovered that the house was not for sale and that the documents used were fake resulting in a police report being made leading to Phiri’s arrest,” said Mr Mugari.

Mr Ncube managed to recover R10 000 out of R470 000, which he was prejudiced of.