A 24-YEAR-OLD student nurse at Gweru Provincial Hospital was yesterday convicted of theft after he squandered $54 000 that was mistakenly deposited into his CABS account. Kelvin Kutadza, a final year student at the hospital withdrew the money that was deposited between July and October last year and converted it to his own use. Kutadza used the money to buy a house in the high-density suburb of Mkoba and two vehicles.
BY STEPHEN CHADENGA
Provincial magistrate, Pathekile Msipa ruled that although the accused did not intentionally steal the money, he used it with the full knowledge that it did not belong to him.
Msipa will deliver sentence today.
In his defence, Kutadza said he was a devoted Christian and believed it was miracle money deposited into his bank account.
He blamed the bank for taking too long to freeze the account after the anomaly.
The State’s case was that between July and October last year, CABS was upgrading its information technology system, resulting in functional challenges in updating accounts balances.
The court heard that each time a client transferred money from the bank into an EcoCash account or any other bank account using the electronic banking system, the system failed to record the correct figures.
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After discovering the bank system failure, Kutadza used his mobile phone between July 5 to September 20 last year to transfer various sums of money from CABS to his Ecocash and to his MBCA savings account, prejudicing CABS of $54 052,34.
The accused went on to use the money to purchase a house in Mkoba 19 suburb for $32 460 and two non-runner vehicles for $5 500 and $5 000 respectively.
Only $2 384,12 was recovered.
Memory Chitsunge prosecuted.
