AN unregistered Bulawayo car dealer appeared in court yesterday charged with swindling Bitumen World (Pvt) Ltd of more than $80 000 in an alleged car import deal.
BY SILAS NKALA
The accused, Ryan Henrey Eric Odendaal (36) was not asked to plead to the fraud charge when he appeared before magistrate, Adeline Mbeure on Saturday. He was granted $100 bail and remanded to October 4.
The court heard that sometime in May this year, Bitumen World’s production manager, Grant Brebner, approached several car dealers, including Odendaal, for quotations with the intention of buying two Toyota Hilux Revo cars.
It is the State case that Odendaal runs an unregistered car dealership business in the city.
Brebner allegedly fell for Odendaal’s quotation and engaged him to supply the vehicles. The accused allegedly supplied pro forma invoices for $88 000 for the two vehicles.
As a result of the misrepresentation, Brebner on June 2 this year allegedly transferred $88 000 through his company’s financier, African Century (Pvt) Ltd into Odendaal’s personal Barclays Bank account.
The parties agreed that the amount was inclusive of all import costs and registration of the two motor vehicles in Zimbabwe.
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It was further agreed that the cars would be delivered to Brebner within two weeks from the date of payment.
Two weeks later, Brebner made a follow-up and Odendaal allegedly claimed that the cars were at Beitbridge Border Post awaiting insurance cover notes.
Brebner allegedly purchased two insurance policies for the vehicles, but Odendaal failed to deliver the vehicles and became evasive.
Brebner later flew to Durban, South Africa, to enquire with the companies that were alleged to have imported the vehicles on Odendaal’s behalf.
While in Durban, Brebner established that Odendaal had only requested for a quotation and did not buy the vehicles from the suppliers.
Brebner returned to Zimbabwe and tried to contact Odendaal with no luck, prompting him to report the matter to the police.
