Woman uses friend's house to get loan

A HARARE woman who fraudulently registered her neighbour's property as surety and obtained a personal loan of $9 150 from a local money lender escaped a jail term on Monday after the court ordered her to pay a $200 fine.

Chipo Gudza (57) was convicted on her own plea of guilty to using the title deeds of Loice Dube Musana's Kuwadzana 7 house to secure the loan from Loveness Muzondo when she appeared before Harare provincial magistrate Tendai Mahwe.

Gudza had her six-month jail term wholly suspended on condition she pays the fine.

The court heard that sometime in May 2011, Gudza approached Muzondo with the intention to borrow money and presented her with Musana's national identity card and house title deeds.

The two entered into a written agreement which empowered Muzondo to take ownership of the property in the event Gudza failed to pay back the loan.

However, as fate would have it, Gudza failed to pay back the money on the agreed dates and on June 15 2011, she drafted and signed an agreement of sale document stating she had sold the house to Muzondo for $25 000.

The offence came to light on June 16 this year when Musana, who had returned from South Africa, was served with a High Court summons by Muzondo seeking occupation of her house.

Musana then made investigations and discovered that Gudza had fraudulently sold the house.

In another related matter, a Kuwadzana Extension couple, Elia Musapatika (46) and Phillipa Musapatika (41), appeared before the same magistrate on Monday charged with fraud after they allegedly used another person's particulars to secure a loan from the bank.

Allegations against the couple are that sometime in July 2010, they applied for and secured a $5 000 loan at CBZ Bank after misrepresenting themselves to the bank as directors of Grace Inspired Services.

The couple, however, acting in connivance with the complainant's former wife, Barbra Kudzanayi, who is still at large, allegedly submitted forged copies of the complainant's identity particulars and offered his property number 17888 Shaftesbury Avenue in Cranborne, Harare, as collateral security for the loan.

The offence came to light on June 20 this year when the Deputy Sheriff stormed the property seeking to attach the house and recover the money on behalf of the bank.

They were both remanded to September 1 on $50 bail each.