Accountant jailed over US$60,000 fraud

A Bulawayo regional magistrate has sentenced a former external accountant to an effective three years in prison after he admitted forging company directors' signatures and stealing more than US$60,000 from his client's bank account.

Langton Chikwara (38) was convicted by Bulawayo Regional Magistrate Taurai Manuwere on Tuesday and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment.

One year of the sentence was suspended for five years on condition that he does not commit a similar offence, while a further three years were suspended on condition that he restitutes US$60,756.37 to the complainant.

This leaves Chikwara with an effective three-year custodial sentence.

In mitigation, Chikwara admitted stealing the money, telling the court he had succumbed to temptation because of personal financial difficulties.

"I handled a lot of money and I was tempted to steal. I had a lot of problems and had to steal so as to solve my problems. I bought the house with the money I stole," he said.

In aggravation, Principal Prosecutor Milton Moyo urged the court to impose a custodial sentence, arguing that Chikwara had abused the trust placed in him by his client.

"He breached the trust the directors of the company had in him. He carried out the offence in a sophisticated manner because he diverted the notifications, which were supposed to reflect on the directors' mobile numbers, to his cellphone," Moyo said.

"He benefited from the crime as he bought a house and nothing was recovered."

The prosecutor further told the court that the theft had serious consequences for the company.

"After the theft, the owners of the company were forced to retrench some employees because the theft plunged the company into a financial crisis. A community service or a fine will trivialise the matter. The State prays for a custodial sentence to send a message to like-minded people," he said.

The complainant is Busynest Marketing (Private) Limited, trading as Nigel West Mine, represented in court by Khumbulani Mhlanga.

The court heard that Chikwara was employed as the company's external accountant and was responsible for preparing and submitting tax returns to the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra), as well as ensuring the company paid the correct taxes.

According to the prosecution, Chikwara advised the company in 2023 to open a dedicated bank account for receiving tax refunds from Zimra.

The company's directors completed and signed the account-opening documents before handing them to Chikwara for submission to the bank.

However, the court heard that Chikwara allegedly discarded the genuine documents and substituted them with forged account-opening forms bearing counterfeit signatures of the directors.

The forged documents listed his own cellphone number, allowing him to receive all banking notifications linked to the account.

The court further heard that on August 4, 2023, Chikwara allegedly prepared a fraudulent letter purporting to have been signed by the company's directors authorising him to transact on behalf of the company.

Believing the documents to be genuine, the bank granted him authority to operate the account.

The prosecution said Chikwara subsequently transferred US$1,200 from the company's account into his personal account in August 2023.

Between September 2023 and June 3, 2025, he allegedly made several additional transfers, bringing the total amount stolen to US$60,756.37.

The court heard that none of the stolen money was recovered.

In passing sentence, the court found that the fraud had been carefully planned and executed over an extended period, resulting in substantial financial prejudice to the company.