THE trial of a former International General Insurance (IGI) company manager, who allegedly defrauded his employer and the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) of over $66 000 in monthly subscriptions paid by the local authority, was yesterday further postponed to Thursday. Report by Staff Reporter
Ernest Sewera (58) is denying the charges of theft and fraud in a case which has dragged in the courts since 2010. Sewera is out of custody on $300 bail.
The State alleges that in 2004, IGI secured 764 employees from BCC into its life assurance scheme and collected premiums for both the group and individual schemes from council.
The money was deposited into IGI’s Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ) account in Harare.
On May 12, 2010, Sewera allegedly collected $19 886, 53 from BCC on behalf of IGI for both individual and group policies for January 2010 subscriptions.
He allegedly deposited $17 986 into IGI’s account and allegedly stole $1 900, 53.
On May 22, he collected $20 087, 44 from BCC, banked $18 637 into IGI account and allegedly stole $1 450, 44.
On June 18, he collected $1 333, 33 from BCC and allegedly stole all of it.
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On August 2, Sewera allegedly misrepresented to BCC that IGI had changed its trading name to IGI Life prompting BCC to transfer $21 977, 36 members, subscriptions for April 2010 to a new account he had supplied.
On August 12, after allegedly misrepresenting to BCC, he collected $20 816, 06 from the council. On September 28, he also misrepresented to BCC leading to the council transferring $18 905 to IGI Life’s account.
He allegedly connived with three other former employees at the company to defraud BCC and IGI through submitting a letter stopping BCC from banking the money into the IGI account, but to deposit it into IGI Life’s account domiciled at CBZ Bulawayo.
This then led to the discovery of the clandestine deals, leading to Sewera’s arrest, but his alleged accomplices are still at large.
He allegedly defrauded BCC and IGI company of $66 382, 72, which was not recovered.
Sewera told the court that all the money claimed to have been stolen was used in company business.
