A BOGUS car dealer, who allegedly swindled a local parastatal, Urban Development Cooperation of US$25 000 in a vehicle deal was recently brought to court on fraud charges. Millennium Motors' Tendai Nyamajiwa (32) was not formally charged when he appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Don Ndirowei.

He was remanded out of custody to January 10 next year on US$300 bail. The complainant in the matter is UDC represented by its finance and administration manager Ms Esther Mukome. The State says the UDC board approved the procurement of three Toyota Bubble vehicles in September.

The board made a resolution that all the vehicles would be bought from Nyamajiwa's company, it is alleged. Mukome allegedly invited Nyamajiwa to her offices in October where an agreement was reached for the purchase of the vehicles.

The court heard Nyamajiwa confirmed having the vehicles required in his stock, and a purchase price of US$9 100 for each vehicle was agreed. According to State papers, Nyamajiwa later brought two vehicles, alleging they were part of the vehicles he intended to sell to UDC. UDC took one of the vehicles to Automobile Association of Zimbabwe (AAZ) for inspection before payments were made.

The vehicles were to be delivered after payment and UDC allegedly transferred US$25 000 into Nyamajiwa's bank account.

During the same month, the court heard that Nyamajiwa went to UDC and told them that the money had been stolen.

He further said that the vehicles he had shown to UDC did not belong to him since he was a broker. The matter was reported to the police leading to Nyamajiwa's arrest.