Catholic Relief director in court for theft

National director of a Catholic Relief Agency, who connived with his two colleagues still at large and allegedly misappropriated more than $562 800 in donor funds, appeared in court on Thursday  charged with fraud.

Cornelius Hamadziripi (49) of number 10445 31st Street in Kuwadzana 1, Harare, appeared before Magistrate Tendai Mahwe.

The complainant in the matter is the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference (ZCBC), represented in the judicial proceedings by secretary general, Father Fradreck Chiromba.

The accused is out of custody on $200 bail and is due back in court on August 15.

The accused's  duties at the Catholic institution, among others, included overseeing the smooth running of the department's financial matters.

Prosecutor Sharon Mashavira alleged that the accused person and his accomplices, Dadirayi Nyamashuka and Wonder Mufunda, connived to defraud the complainant sometime in 2009 and awarded themselves salaries in advance, which they would later write off.

In pursuant to their plans and between January 5 2009 and February 7 this year, the trio allegedly credited $132 562 to their accounts  as advance salary.

The court further heard that they did not pay back the money as per the institution's policy, but wrote off the figure from the complainant's financial records.

Using the same modus operandi, Hamadziripi and his accomplices further withdrew $156 013 from their employer's account.

They purported that the money was meant to augment the institution's petty cash, notwithsatanding the trio's conversion of the money to personal use.

Again sometime in 2013, the accused and his accomplices received $30 400 from CAFOD, an overseas donor, to assist victims of political violence during the country's 2013 plebiscite.

There were no claims to the funds and the accused was ordered to transfer the money back to CAFOD, the court heard.

Hamadziripi only remitted $4 999, 20 and failed to account for the remainder.

The complainant then engaged BCA forensic auditors (Pvt) Ltd to carry out an investigation into the institution's financial records.

The auditors unearthed some financial irregularities implicating Hamadziripi and his accomplices as having created fictitious claims and in the process lying about  movements of donor funds, resulting in the embezzlement of $562 869.

A police report was filed on July 16, leading to the accused's  arrest.

Nothing has been recovered to date.