PHD Ministries $116 000 car saga: Businessman’s discharge bid dismissed

HARARE regional magistrate Noel Mupeiwa on Tuesday dismissed an application for discharge filed by businessman Upenyu Mashangwa and his colleagues in a case they are charged with defrauding Prophetic Healing and Deliverance (PHD) Ministries of $116 000 in a botched car importation deal

Mashangwa and his co-accused, Cosmas Mushininga, Kudakwashe Larry Mapfumo and Clifford Tinashe Gonde, are alternatively facing charges of smuggling a Land Rover Discovery 4 2013 model into the country and failing to pay import duty to the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra).

In dismissing the application, Mupeiwa said the State had managed to prove a prima facie case against the quartet, although some of the evidence given by the witnesses was not credible.

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