A Harare man is in trouble with the law after he used his relatives' upmarket properties as surety to secure a US$1 million loan from banks.
Tonderai Chikuni (55) of the Grange appeared before Harare regional magistrate Marehwanazvo Gofa facing fraud charges.
He was not asked to plead and was freed on US$500 bail.
He is expected back in court on April 21 for his routine remand.
It is the State's case that sometime in February 2023, Chikuni and his accomplice Oscar Guti Njanji, who is still at large hatched a plan to defraud his aunt Florence Madake.
He allegedly approached Madake and misrepresented to her that he was employed as a business consultant by Njanji.
It is alleged that he deceived his aunt into believing that his accomplice had viable business operations at Freda Rebecca Mine, Bindura, which required some funding.
"The accused person indicated to the complainant that they had made an application for a business loan at BancABC but it was not successful due to the unavailability of collateral security. It was then that the accused enticed the complainant into releasing the title deed for her house which is situated at stand 16, Giraffe Crescent, Borrowdale West, Harare measuring 2 339 square meters registered under deed of transfer 2772/97.
"The accused person and his accomplice took the complainant's title deed on the pretext that they were applying for a 90-day loan facility worth US$252,842.29. The accused further misrepresented to the complainant that they had the capacity to service the loan within 90 days and would return the title deed thereafter.
"Acting on the misrepresentation, the complainant gave the accused person the title deed for her house which is valued at US$460 000. The accused person and his accomplice then successfully made a loan application at BancABC using the complainant's title deed as collateral security.
"The accused person failed to service the loan and the complainant's title deeds remained at the bank. The complainant made follow ups but the accused person and his accomplice kept on giving empty promises.
"After a while, the complainant was apprised of BancABC's intentions to dispose of her house due to non-servicing of the loan by the accused and his accomplice. The complainant engaged the accused person and his accomplice but nothing materialised," the State alleges.
The court heard that he used that same method when he deceived his cousin, Farai Chikuni after getting the title deeds for stand 2462 Glen Lorne measuring 6,211 square meters registered under Deed of Grant number 8372/2008.
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It is alleged that Farai gave in to his request and gave him the title deeds for his house, which is worth US$600,000.
"The accused person and his accomplice then successfully made a loan application at NMB Bank Limited using the complainant's deed of grant as collateral security.
"The accused person failed to service the loan, and the complainant's title deeds remained at the bank. The complainant made follow ups but the accused person and his accomplice kept on giving empty promises.
"After a while, the complainant was apprised of NMB Bank Limited's intentions to dispose of his house due to non-servicing of the loan by the accused and his accomplice. The complainant engaged the accused person and his accomplice but nothing materialised," the State alleges further.
