Terrence Mawawa Masvingo|A cunning Masvingo man ran out of luck after feigning his son’s death in a desperate bid to defraud First Mutual Life of $1,500 cash.
The case was heard before Masvingo Magistrate Langton Ndokera last Friday.
The daring man, Godfrey Kutadza, of Mazarira Village under Chief Chikwanda, went to the First Mutual Life offices and made a funeral cash request for the supposed burial of his son, Shepherd, who is aged 18.
He then produced a fake Burial Order number 86/89 to support his claim.
The attempted fraud was thwarted after First Mutual Life made some verifications with Kutadza’s village head who revealed the man’s son was alive.
Kutadza, who is a general hand at Victoria Junior Primary School in the city of Masvingo, in mitigation said he had pressing financial challenges that forced him to commit the offence.
He said he had no bad intention in committing the offence since he only wanted to get some cash to cushion himself against glaring challenges.
Joseph Gundura, the village head expressed shock at Kutadza’s surprisingly anti-social behaviour.
Speaking to ZimEye.com in separate discussions, Kutadza’s relatives said the incident has shaken the entire family.
“This is unheard of -we are disturbed by what happened. We are still trying to come to terms with what transpired. It is highly prohibited to feign someone’s death. We are now eagerly awaiting the court ruling,” a shocked relative told ZimEye.