BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE A HARARE man has been arrested on charges of duping a granny of $50 000 in a botched mobile phone importation deal.
Lloyd Manyepwa was not asked to plead when he appeared before magistrate Rumbidzai Mugwagwa who remanded him to August 3 on $200 bail.
As part of his bail conditions Manyepwa was ordered to surrender his passport to the clerk of court, not to interfere with State witness, to reside at the given address and to report twice at CID Commercial Crimes Division.
It is the State’s case that in September last year, the accused approached one Chenjerai Gwanzura and indicated to him that he had won a tender with Econet Zimbabwe to import mobile phone gadgets from the United States based company, Sky Devices.
Manyepwa told Gwanzura that he needed a partner who can finance the project. Gwanzura approached the complainant who is not named in court papers but is a 70-year old woman.
It is alleged the complainant got interested in the deal and the parties arranged a meeting on how they were going to operate in a partnership.
During the meeting Manyepwa misrepresented to the complainant that Sky Devices wanted $2 000 to release a product sample and he was given the money. The complainant was told that the product will be shared together with the capital. After a short period Manyepwa approached the complainant again and told her that he was running out of time to meet the deadline and he needed $50 000 to facilitate quick importation of the rest of mobile phone gadgets. The State alleges the complainant transferred $50 000 into Manyepwa’s bank account. After receiving the money Manyepwa converted it to own use and he started giving false promises to the complainant and later he became evasive. The complainant then reported the matter to the police leading to Manyepwa’s arrest. The complainant suffered $52 000 prejudice and nothing was recovered.
