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Tendai Rupapa Senior Court Reporter
The three Navistar Insurance Brokers bosses accused of defrauding Air Zimbabwe of $796 079 in an alleged insurance scam were last week cleared of any wrongdoing.

Harare regional magistrate Mr Noel Mupeiwa found Givemore Nderere (46), Vukile Hlupo (46) and Orten Mawire (61) not guilty and acquitted them after a fully contested trial.

In his ruling, Mr Mupeiwa said evidence led by the State could not sustain a charge of fraud. He said the State failed to prove a case against the trio.

“The State missed it when it decided to separate accused 1, which is Navistar, from the three accused persons. Navistar was put on judicial management, consequently all judicial proceedings against it were suspended. The State then decided to proceed with the trial of the trio.

“To say the least, Navistar was being run in an unprofessional way. It only had one account which is a business account. Trust funds must be maintained in a separate trust account. The money was deposited by the airline into Navistar bank account,” he said.

He added; “There is no evidence from the bank statements which shows that the three accused benefited or were personally involved in the commission of the offence. The money was used towards business obligations by Navistar. If at all the three benefited, it was through salaries which were paid to them by Navistar. Therefore all the three are found not guilty and acquitted.”

Mr Chris Ndlovu appeared on behalf of the three while Mr Oliver Marwa prosecuted.

The State alleged that the trio connived with then Air Zimbabwe bosses Peter Chikumba and Grace Pfumbidzayi to defraud the national airline by inflating aviation insurance premiums.

It is alleged that the group presented several inflated debit notes to the airline, leading to payments of aviation insurance premiums last year.