A 28-YEAR-OLD EcoCash serial fraudster was slapped with a six-year jail term by Guruve magistrate, Artwell Sanyatwe, on Friday last week for defrauding a retail outlet of groceries worth $12 000.
By Simbarashe Sithole
Takemore Jamu (28) of Chauke B village under Chief Matsivo, Mbire pleaded guilty to 23 counts of fraud before Sanyatwe, who sentenced him to six years in jail, but two years were suspended on condition of good behaviour, while an additional year was suspended on condition that he resituates the stolen property.
Prosecutor Carson Kundiona, told the court that Jamu edited EcoCash texts messages from November last year to January 24 purporting to be a buyer at Super Stores and Wholesaler on 23 occasions.
On January 24 at around 10am the convict entered the shop intending to collect groceries worth $500, he tried to use the same modus operandi by showing the storekeeper Macshame Matika (30) an edited EcoCash message which raised his suspicion.
Matika then cross-checked with the previous EcoCash texts in Jamu’s phone and observed that he had scammed the store 23 times and prejudiced it of thousands of dollars in groceries.
The storekeeper subsequently texted the police who recovered groceries valued at $10 927 from the suspect’s house. Groceries worth $1 073 could not be accounted for.
