The ManicaPost
Luthando Mapepa
Chipinge Correspondent
TWO Chipinge-based Econet employees who teamed up to defraud the mobile telecommunications giant of $20 million were today jailed a combined nine years.
The duo, Mukai Maringe Mapanzure (35) and Gavin Tinashe Guwu (30), appeared before Chipinge regional magistrate Mr Christopher Maturure who convicted the pair after a full trial.
They were facing fraud charges as defined in Section 136 (a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.
Mapanzure was facing 108 counts of fraud, while Guwu was facing 98 counts.
Mapanzure was sentenced to seven years imprisonment, two of which were suspended on condition of good behaviour. A further two years were suspended on condition that he restitutes the complainant of nearly $15 million. He will serve an effective three-year jail term.
Guwu was sentenced to four years, two of which were suspended.
In his ruling, Mr Maturure said although the accused showed remorse by their willingness to restitute their employer, it will be a mockery of justice if the two were spared a jail sentence because of the gravity of offence.
Said Mr Maturure: “In assessing the sentence, the court has considered that part of the stolen money was recovered. The court is sentencing them separately because the second accused (Guwu) initially committed the offence with the first accused (Mapanzure), but later received money to buy American dollars from the latter.
Prosecuting, Mr Walter Saunyama said sometime in 2019, Mapanzure and Guwu hatched a plan to defraud their employer.
“They replaced an Econet mobile broadband merchant line 0784953460 with a physical sim card. This enabled them to carry out Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) transactions by inserting the sim card in a Mobicel cellphone with serial number 359725084071720 and transferred money into agent lines,” said Mr Saunyama.
The complainant was prejudiced of $20 384 475.
