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Court Reporter
Two High Court officials were last week arrested and brought to court on allegations of issuing a fake certificate of authority to relatives of a deceased man. They subsequently used it to withdraw money from the deceased’s estate. James Mabangure (29) is a trust and taxing officer at the Master of High Court while Tafadzwa Munetsi (30) is a High Court judges’ clerk.

The pair allegedly manufactured a certificate of authority which they gave to the deceased’s daughter, Edna Nyakuromba, and her brother-in-law, Zakeyo Gedion.

The certificate purported that Nyakuromba had been appointed as the executor and as such had been authorised to withdraw money from the deceased’s estate at the height of an estate wrangle.

The quartet appeared before magistrate Mr Milton Serima charged with fraud.

Mr Serima remanded them to January 29.

Prosecutor Miss Sharon Mashavira alleges that on December 27 2012, Edna’s father, Kwewakuru Nicholas Nyakuromba, died leaving two wives and three children.

The State had it that Nyakuromba’s estate was registered in Rusape but a dispute arose between the family members on who was supposed to be appointed executor.

The matter was referred to the Master of High Court as a result of the dispute and Oliver Masomera was appointed independent executor to administer the estate.

The court heard that amongst the consolidated list of assets owned by Nyakuromba was an NMB Bank account.

Sometime last year, Edna and her brother-in-law hatched a plan to defraud other family members and approached the Master of High Court where they reportedly obtained a certificate of authority which gave them access to the NMB Bank account statement.

The account was said to have a balance of US$8 033.

The court heard that on July 26, Edna and her brother-in-law reportedly approached Mabangure and Munetsi at their workplace in a bid to obtain a fake certificate of authority so that they would fraudulently withdraw money from the late Nyakuromba’s account.

It is the State’s case that Mabangure and Munetsi manufactured a certificate of authority for Edna which stated that she had been appointed the executor of the estate and was authorised to withdraw money from the account.

The offence came to light when Masomera, in the course of his duties as an executor, wrote a letter to NMB Bank requesting for the freezing of the account in a bid to safeguard the money.

The bank officials told him that Edna had already withdrawn the money.