Suspected land baron faces US$21 000 fraud charges

A SUSPECTED land baron allegedly duped two unsuspecting property buyers of US$21 000.

Fraudster Webster Ngwaru was yesterday remanded to April 23 on a US$250 bail by Harare magistrate Mrs. Apollonia Marutya. The prosecutor, Mr. Thomas Chanakira, claimed that in 2019, Chingwaru falsely claimed in an advertisement that he was selling residential stands between Zimre Park in Ruwa and Mabvuku in eastern Harare to Ms. Tendai Chinhema, who was in Australia.

Ms. Chinhema paid in installments for an 800-square-meter stand that she purchased for $6,500 in the United States in November 2019. She subsequently paid US$7,000 for a second stand, both of which were registered in her name and for which she received receipts. But when she tried to build the stands, representatives of the Harare City Council halted her in her tracks, telling her that the land was not for sale and had never belonged to Ngwaru.

Other stalls that had been established there had since had their buildings removed. Ms. Chinhema went to the offices of Ngwaru in order to get her money back and to be kicked out of the housing project. The two came to a deal whereby Ms. Chinhema would get $10,000 USD and would be responsible for collecting the remaining amount over time. Because Ngwaru broke the contract, Ms. Chinhema lost the entire $15,750 that she had paid for the land.

On the second count, the State alleged that in January this year, Ngwaru advertised that he was selling stands in Crowhill Estate, Borrowdale, Harare. On January 31 last year, Ollyn Rudo Kanyenze (58) went to Ngwaru’s office and was taken to view the stands by someone named Mr Makaza.

Ms. Kanyenze paid US$5,000 in cash to purchase the residential stand, which was valued at US$8,500, along with a US$350 administrative charge. Installments had to be made to settle the balance.When Ms. Kanyenze returned a month later to see if anything had changed in the area, she found nothing had. She received a letter from Ngwaru on June 6 telling her that her money will be returned in 90 days since she had fallen behind on her installments. When Ms. Kanyenze visited Ngwaru's headquarters on September 4, she was informed that they were out of money to reimburse her. She filed a police report because Ngwaru started acting evasively after that. $5,350 was lost by Ms. Kanyenze, and nothing was found.