Trio forges ID, title deeds to dupe buyers

Police have arrested three suspects believed to be part of a syndicate allegedly duping home-seekers by advertising non-existent residential stands in newspapers and using fake documents.

Tinashe Muyengwa (24), Peter Shuro (38) and Takunda Marinda (20) were nabbed after they were about to sell Daniel Nyarirangwe's residential stand to Elisha Jaranganwa for $45 000.

Nyarirangwe is based in the United Kingdom and it is not clear how the suspects got his title deeds and identity details which they used to forge an identity document with Shuro's face on it.

It is also still a mystery as to how they got to know that stand number 918 Bannockburn Road, Mt Pleasant Heights, Harare, belonged to Nyarirangwe. Muyengwa, Shuro and Marinda appeared before magistrate Mr Lazini Ncube charged with fraud.

Muyengwa and Shuro, who have pending cases of a similar nature, were remanded in custody to allow the State to verify the position of the said cases.

Marinda, who was granted $600 bail, told the court that he could not afford the money, but Mr Ncube informed him he would be sent to remand prison if he failed to pay the bail money.

Prosecutor Mr Sebastian Mutizirwa alleged that on June 10, the trio placed an advertisement in a local newspaper stating that they were selling a residential stand in Mt Pleasant Heights, Harare, for $45 000.

After seeing the advert, Jaranganwa became interested and called the supplied number, which was answered by Shuro, the court heard. It is alleged that Shuro misrepresented to Jaranganwa that his name was Daniel Nyarirangwe, who happens to be the legitimate owner of the stand.

The court heard that the three made arrangements for Jaranganwa to view the stand, which he did. On June 14, the complainant met with Shuro intending to finalise the sale.

He was given photocopies of the title deeds and an identity card bearing Nyarirangwe's name, but with Shuro's face on it. Jaranganwa was then advised to approach the Deeds Office for due diligence, the State alleged.

Armed with the documents, Jaranganwa, the court heard, proceeded to the Deeds Office where he was told the information on his documents tallied with the information in their system.

Satisfied, Jaranangwa proceeded to negotiate with Shuro to have the price slashed to $25 000. It is the State's case that Shuro turned down Jaranganwa's offer, saying the money was too little. Three days later, the accused persons called Jaranganwa and told him they were in urgent need of cash hence had decided to accept his offer.

Jaranganwa, the State alleged, then sought assistance from his lawyer for further due dil- igence. The lawyer, the court heard, proceeded to the said stand where he interviewed the neighbours who in turn told him that the owner of the stand, Nyarirangwe, was based in the United Kingdom.

He was further told that Nyarirangwe's mother was the one who oversees her son's properties and he was referred to her.

After interviewing Nyarirangwe's mother who professed ignorance about the proposed sale of the stand, Jaranganwa and his lawyer made a report to the police and a trap was set.

It is the State's case that Jaranganwa called Shuro on the pretext that he wanted to hand over the money. Shuro came in the company of Muyengwa and were subsequently arrested.

They were searched and were found in possession of a fake identity card bearing Nyarirangwe's name, title deeds for the stand, City of Harare water bill and an agreement of sale, the court heard.

The pair then implicated their alleged accomplice, Marinda, who was later arrested and found in possession of fake title deeds.