Pambuka Convicted For Pretending To Be Croco Motors Boss, Fraud

Oscar Pambuka, a former television host, was found guilty today of attempting to defraud a transporter based in Harare out of R36 000 by pretending to be Mr. Chingwena, director of Croco Motors, and asking for advance payment to pay for the shipment of his motor spare parts in South Africa when they appeared at Mbare Magistrates Court.

Gibson Mazhangara, the owner of Gimatar Logistics, was the target of Pambuka’s trickery.

According to The Herald, Ngonidzashe Mbauya and Elmore Mwenye, who were accused of being involved in the incident, were exonerated and found not guilty.

Pambuka called Mr. Mazhangara on November 15 of last year while posing as the Croco Motors marketing manager and speaking on behalf of Mr. Chingwena. He requested R36 000 as an advance payment for sending spare parts from South Africa.

He claimed that Mr Chingwena was at a meeting.

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Pambuka then requested that Mr Mazhangara deposit the funds in the FNB Bank account of J Velem Enterprises trading as Ulphostery Trading in South Africa.

He further informed Mr Mazhangira that he would be receiving a comparable amount in US dollars in the country.

Mr Mazhangira detected a rat and sought to confirm with Croco Motors, who stated that there were no spare parts containers in South Africa awaiting shipment.

He reported the incident to the police, which resulted in the trio’s arrest.

Mr Nyasha Vitorini, magistrate of Mbare, remanded the defendant in detention until tomorrow for sentencing.

Miss Vimbai Makamure represented the State.