HARARE-BASED female con-artist Chioneso Taodzera has been slapped with a 24-month jail term for defrauding 21 job seekers in Manicaland province after promising to secure employment for them.
BY OBEY MANAYITI STAFF REPORTER
Taodzera, from Seke in Chitungwiza, pleaded guilty to the fraud charge when she appeared before Chipinge magistrate Clemence Ngweshiwa on Wednesday.
The court ordered her to pay a $2 000 fine or spend 24 months in prison.
Initially, she was sentenced to 48 months in prison of which 24 were suspended on condition of good behaviour, while the other 24 months were suspended on condition that she restituted the complainants a sum of $7 000.
The court heard that sometime between June and October last year, Taodzera and Samson Kurumombe connived to defraud the complainants in Nyanyadzi by promising to secure them jobs at the diamond-mining companies in Chiadzwa.
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They demanded various amounts depending on the nature of the job one wanted.
As a result, the complainants lost a total of $13 917, but Taodzera claimed to have benefited $7 000 from the fraud, a submission that was accepted by the State.
Following a series of unfulfilled promises, the complainants went to make a police report leading to the arrest of Taodzera and police are yet to apprehend her accomplice.
Witness Nyamundaya prosecuted.