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Senior Court Reporter

A trusted gardener left in charge of a house while his employer was out of the country systematically looted the property and took a large wad of cash from the safe.

Gift Nyamayevhu (27) yesterday admitted to stealing from his employer, Dr Gerald Nyoni, and replacing some of the money with counterfeit notes before he went to build a house, bought a 5-hectare stand and bought household goods. 

These he gave to his sister, Elizabeth Nyamayevhu, at their homestead in Mhondoro-Ngezi.

Elizabeth denied the charges when they separately appeared before Harare magistrate Mrs Barbra Mateko.

Gift is expected back in court today for sentence.

Gift was employed by Dr Nyoni in 2019 as a gardener and he would be left in charge of his premises. Upon his return, Dr Nyoni would notice that some of his goods were missing, but did not suspect his gardener.

During the times he would leave the country, Gift would take Dr Nyoni’s bedroom keys from the dining room where they were hidden on his files, unlock the safe and took money out of the safe. 

In a bid to conceal the offence, Gift replaced US$6 900 with fake US$100 notes.

On April 24, Dr Nyoni unlocked his safe and took the money for banking where he noticed he had US$26 900 instead of US$38 000 and that among the US$26 900, a total of US$6 900 were fake notes, a total loss of US$18 000.

Dr Nyoni took the matter to the police and investigations led to the recovery of his clothes and various items that Gift had bought using the money.

Upon arrest, he revealed that he had built a 5-roomed house, and bought the land with the money.