By Vanessa Mhizha
Home-seekers have dragged a Royal Palm Trust founder and a consultant at Knight Frank to the Harare Magistrates Court following a botched residential stands deal in which they lost US$90,000.
Washington Musiiwa (44) and Uzillah Munyengerwa (42) appeared before Harare magistrate Yeukai Dzuda facing fraud charges.
Complainants are beneficiaries of Royal Palm Trust being represented by Tinotenda Chihera. The court heard that sometime in 2020, the two accused connived to defraud home seekers.
Munyengerwa allegedly invited some women to form a Trust for the purposes of purchasing land for residential stands.
The court heard that Musiiwa was appointed as an agent and misrepresented to the Trust beneficiaries that he was acting on behalf of Knight Frank, a real estate agency in the transaction.
Sometime in June 2021, Musiiwa drafted an agreement of sale after he was tasked to sale stand number 11532 of Lot 17, Tynwald by the seller, James Kimani Gecau, who is in Kenya.
The agreement of sale was handed over to Munyengerwa who misrepresented to the beneficiaries of the Trust that there was an agreement between them and the seller. The two suspects allegedly forged the seller’s signature on the agreement of sale.
It is the State’s case that the Trust’s beneficiaries were made to pay contributions towards the purchase, development and servicing of the land.
They were advised by Munyengerwa that the land was priced at US$540 000 by the seller. The complainant and other beneficiaries contributed the money and were shown a fraudulent agreement of sale with US$540 000, with a Knight Frank letterhead.
The court heard that on October 8, 2020, a genuine agreement of sale was signed between the seller and Munyengerwa who was representing the complainants for the property which was valued at US$450 000.
It is alleged that one of the beneficiaries then visited the Deeds Office to verify the authenticity of the land after Munyengerwa failed to produce the original documents of the property. She discovered that an agreement of sale with a total of US$450 000 was in the deed file whilst they were made to pay US$540 000 and discovered that they were duped by the two accused persons.
On November 23 last year, the Trust’s beneficiaries conveyed a meeting and instructed Munyengerwa and his accomplice to explain the difference in amounts on the two agreements of sale. It is the State’s case that sometime in November 2021, Munyengerwa refunded US$10 000. On November 29, 2021, she also brought another US$20 000 and an acknowledgement of US$60 000 debt from Musiiwa.
The court heard that on January 22, Musiiwa brought to the complainants US$60 000 as refund. As a result of the accused’s actions, the complainants suffered prejudice to the tune of US$90 000 and was wholly recovered.
The two accused were freed on $30 000 bail each and were ordered not to interfere with witnesses and to continue residing at their given addresses.
