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Yeukai Karengezeka Court Correspondent

Harare regional magistrate Mr Ngoni Nduna has sentenced to community service former Croco Motors parts manager Joseph Matinyarare and his accomplice, receiving clerk Stephen Chafachaipa, who defrauded their employer of $107 484 633 in 2020.

Matinyarare was sentenced to six years in prison of which two were wholly suspended on condition that he performs 840 hours of community service at Waterfalls Clinic and that he pays back to Croco Motors $5 744 491 by April 30.

Mr Nduna sentenced Chafachaipa to four years imprisonment which was suspended on condition he performs 490 hours of community service at Budiriro 5 Primary School.

In handing down sentence, Mr Nduna noted that the State, led by Mrs Cecilia Mashingaidze, argued in aggravation for a custodial sentence as the loss suffered by the employer was irrecoverable.

However, Matinyarare pleaded with the court to give him a non-custodial sentence since the State had already forfeited all of his properties.

“Therefore the sentence upon the first convict on the double convictions will be treated as one. He was the manager of the section from which he stole and he stole a lot more than the second convict.

“Whilst this approach achieves justice, in an environment of high inflation, the approach is rendered nugatory. The hundreds of millions of local currency are no longer worth as much as today. There are gaps the law cannot remedy,” said Mr Nduna.

Mrs Mashingaidze proved that on separate dates, acting in connivance, the two stole car parts, covering up their shady deals by entering irregular adjustments into the company computer system to balance the stocks.

On September 23, 2020, an internal audit unearthed the irregular stock adjustments made by the two. When the internal auditors asked for explanations, Matinyarare revealed that he had some of the spare parts at his home and some parts were recovered there.

Meanwhile, properties belonging to Matinyarare were last year forfeited to the State after the court established that he acquired them using proceeds of crime between 2016 and 2020.