BY DARLINGTON MWASHITA
A BULAWAYO businessman has been taken to court for defrauding three residents amounts totalling R425 000 and US$12 400 after promising to construct bigger houses for them on condition they sold him the ones they already had.
Marvellous Dube of Primed and Ready Enterprises, a construction company, was last week not asked to plead to fraud when he appeared before magistrate Lizwe Jamela.
He was remanded out of custody to March 20.
The court was told that Dube connived with his co-director, Mthandazo Mabuza Ncube, who is still at large, to defraud the complainants.
It is the State case that sometime in January last year, Greenfield Nyoni of Magwegwe North went to Dube’s company offices situated along Robert Mugabe Street where he met Ncube.
It is alleged that Dube and Ncube, acting in common purpose as directors of the company, misrepresented to Nyoni that Primed and Ready Enterprises was selling a house in Magwegwe North for US$16 000 on behalf of the owner based in South Africa.
Ncube told Nyoni that the owner of the property would give him the power of attorney to transfer the property to the complainant if he was interested in the house.
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Nyoni paid a total of US$12 400 towards the purchase of the house and $400 as administration fee.
On another count, on February 2019, Priscilla Maphosa of Old Magwegwe went to Dube’s offices where Dube and Ncube also misrepresented to her that their company was capable of selling her house and thereafter buy her a bigger one.
Maphosa surrendered her house in Old Magwegwe to them. The house was then sold for R200 000 before they allegedly converted the money to their own use and never bought a bigger house for Maphosa.
Maphosa suffered a prejudice of R200 000.
Using the same modus operandi, they allegedly duped Sheila Banda of Cowdray Park and made her surrender her residential stand in Pelandaba West to Dube. The stand was sold for R225 000. Dube allegedly converted the money to his own use and never built a four-roomed house for Banda as promised.
A report was made to the police, leading to Dube’s arrest.
