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Rutendo Rori Court Reporter
A Stanbic Bank teller who swindled the financial institution of more than $11 000 was recently sentenced to perform 175 hours of community service.

Kudzai Murairwa (29) pleaded guilty to fraud charges when he appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Arnold Maburo, who sentenced him to 20 months in jail, but suspended five months on condition of good behaviour and 10 months on condition that he restitutes the complainant $4 666.

The remaining five months were removed on condition that he performs 175 hours of community service at Seke Clinic.

Prosecuting, Mr Benjamin Chikerema proved that between February 1 last year and March this year, Murairwa unlawfully used his privilege of access to Stanbic Bank accounts to make unlawful transactions.

On March 12, he made a cash withdrawal of $2 030 from a ZAOGA ZIMRE account without their knowledge and converted it to personal use.

To cover up for the offence, he transferred $2 030 from a ZAOGA City current account to ZAOGA ZIMRE account both held with Stanbic Bank.

Furthermore, between April 10 and October 21 last year, Murairwa made cash withdrawals of $8 380 from ZAOGA City current account.

He then made cash deposits of $4 630 into ZAOGA City current account and a transfer of $2 350 from the Zimbabwe Nurses Association.

This led to a deficit of $3 750 in the ZAOGA City account.

On another occasion, Murairwa made cash withdrawals and transfers of $12 350 from a Zimbabwe Nurses Association account last year, he made withdrawals and deposits into a Eurostar account and $35 commission remained the outstanding balance.

Between September 17 and November 27, Murairwa made cash withdrawals and a transfer of $1 300 from Young Sir Baek’s account into his personal account.

From January 13 to February 15 this year, Murairwa transferred $5 000 from ZAOGA City account to Zimbabwe Nurses Association.

Stanbic Bank, which is the complainant, managed to recover $4 918,98 from Murairwa’s account and the outstanding balance in ZAOGA City savings account was $3 081,02.

The offence came to light when some of the clients discovered that there were suspicious transactions in their bank statements.

Stanbic Bank head of financial crime control Mr Continue Mudekwa discovered the offences and engaged Murairwa to reimburse the stolen money.

He surrendered his two motor vehicles on an agreed value of $7 000.

As a result, Stanbic Bank suffered a prejudice of $11 666.