A former Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) accountant who is serving six years for stealing over US$1 from the taxman bank account, Tapuwa Evans Chidemo has lost a Supreme Court appeal in which he was challenging his conviction for fraud.
Chidemo had mounted an appeal at the apex court after the High Court trashed his appeal against the magistrate's decision.
This also comes at a time his properties were forfeited to State for being tainted, and acquired using crime proceeds.
The former accountant was arraigned before the Magistrates' Court facing nine counts of fraud.
Chidemo was the sole user of a software system called Paynet used by ZIMRA to refund value-added tax to its clients.
It was the State's case that the appellant transferred various amounts of money using the Paynet system from ZIMRA's account to various individuals and companies.
The money would then be withdrawn and handed over to him.
It was alleged that he used the credentials "T Chide" to access the system and to make the payments.
He was found guilty of counts two and five and was acquitted of the rest of the counts.
In respect of the second count, it was alleged that he diverted ZIMRA's money and deposited it into his wife's bank account.
The total amount that was alleged to have been deposited into the wife's account amounted to US$45 882.60.
With regards to the fifth count it was alleged that Chidemo registered a company called Armeline Enterprises (Private) Limited and opened a bank account for the same.
Thereafter he deposited US$414 656.01 from ZIMRA's account.
He had pleaded not guilty to all counts.
In his defence, he averred that he was not the only one who had access to the payment system and as such, someone else could have made the transfers.
He argued that his credentials were T.E. Chidemo and not T. Chide.
He denied ever authorizing the transfers in dispute and that someone else could have made a transfer into his wife's bank account and thereafter cloned the bank card to access the money.
The State led evidence from witnesses from Paynet, ZIMRA and auditors from KPMG who nailed him.
Representatives of companies whose bank accounts were deposited with money transferred from the ZIMRA's account testified that after withdrawing the money they would hand it over to Chidemo.
The trial court found that the State had failed to prove that his credentials were T. Chide.
It found that the omission by the State to produce the audit report as evidence was fatal to its case as the report would have proved whether or not the appellant was the one who authorized the transactions in question.
As a result, the appellant was acquitted of all the counts save for counts two and five and sentenced to six years' imprisonment of which one year was suspended on condition of good behaviour.
A further two years were suspended on condition he paid restitution of US$450 538.61 to Zimra.
Aggrieved by the decision of the trial court, he appealed to the High Court which found that the application was not made within a reasonable time as 13 months had elapsed following his acquittal of the seven counts.
Dissatisfied by the decision of the court a quo the appellant noted the present appeal arguing that the State had failed to prove the circumstances which amounted to the act of misrepresentation.
The Supreme Court dismissed his appeal ruling that the High Court did not "err in dismissing the appeal on the basis of the cumulative effect of the evidence placed before the trial court."
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The appeal is devoid of merit as there was no evidence of identity theft as claimed by the appellant.
"The appellant is strongly linked to these illegitimate recipients of the ZIMRA VAT refunds.
"He is one of the directors of Armeline Investments as borne out by the CR 14 form. His identification number also appeared on the Armeline Investments account opening forms alongside his address which appears on an application for deposit and share accounts filed by his wife way back in 1997 before the commission of the offences.
"In light of the above circumstances, the inescapable conclusion is that the appellant indeed electronically manipulated the ZIMRA Payment System and siphoned funds meant for ZIMRA clients into his wife's and company's bank accounts. The trial court's reliance on circumstantial evidence cannot be faulted in this regard as the above-proven facts exclude every reasonable inference from them save the one sought to be drawn," ruled the court before trashing Chidemo's appeal.
