JAYSON KARAN
The Zimbabwe Republic Police in Bulawayo have managed to arrest husband and wife who have been duping will be diasporas of their hard earned cash.
The couple has been dragged to court accused of fraudulent duping so many people.
The Bulawayo police arrested Gwendoline Ndlovu, 35, and her husband Melusi Ndlovu, 36, from Sunninghill Bulawayo for fraud that happened last year in August.
The husband and wife used to pose themselves as agents of undisclosed company that deals in securing jobs, work permits and processing of legal traveling documents for people who wanted to go and work in Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland.
According to a police report, the two were approached by eight complainants around Bulawayo on different dates who were looking for legal documents to go overseas for work, and the accused charged them any amount of US$ 4000 each to get the service processed.
“The complainants were charged a lot of money of about US$4000 each for the service,” said Inspector A. Ncube.
“They were interested but they only managed to pay a fraction of the actual price and made some payment plans agreements,” added the Inspector.
The complainants were also interviewed on different occasions through WhatsApp calls and audios by a male who was believed to be working with the two accused persons.
Both the complainants were told that they passed the interview and were given a period ranging from two to three weeks from the interview date that their processing will be ready for them to go to their respective destinations.
“The complainants were told to wait for two to three weeks from the day they were interviewed but however, the accused failed to deliver till the promised period lapsed,” said Inspector Ncube.
“Melusi and Gwendoline started to give their clients excuses and different reasons till the they decided to move from their known working location to another due to the complainants pressure,” Inspector Ncube says.
According to the police report, on the 3rd day of May 2023, one of the complainants decided to pay them a visit and found the husband busy loading the property into the car and she called the police.
Melusi was arrested on the spot by the Bulawayo police and Gwendoline was also arrested at the Bulawayo Central Hospital at the same day of her husband arrest.
The police are yet to recover every penny from the two accused as the total value defrauded is US$34 801.
Due to the arrest of the two accused persons, twelve more similar cases have been received by the police from new victims around Bulawayo.
“Due to this issue, as the authority and law enforcer, we would like to tell the public to be very cautious when dealing with these agents. Please, verify the authenticity of the company first to see if it is the legal one before dealing with these people,” added the Inspector.
According to the Police Inspector, the two accused persons are also playing a great role in the ongoing police investigations on the fraud issues around the City of Kings, Bulawayo.