By A Correspondent- A Harare man yesterday appeared in court for swindling CABS Bank clients of $533 000 after taking advantage of a system malfunction at the financial institution.

The suspect, Israel Magate (31) of Dzivaresekwa, appeared before magistrate Tafadzwa Mhiti and was remanded in custody to today for bail ruling.

Allegations are that on September 7, 2020, the accused person connived with James Mtisi, who is still at large, to defraud a complainant, Simbarashe Charamba,
taking advantage of the fact that CABS Bank’s system was malfunctioning, resulting in it duplicating transactions.

They misrepresented to the bank that Magate had lost his bank card at a time he was scheduled to receive transfers in local currency from the sale of his wardrobe through his CABS Bank account.

His Econet SIM card was then matched to his bank account.

It is alleged that Magate then used the account to receive $270 000 from Caroline Zirata and on that same date, he transferred $260 000 into Charamba’s CABS Bank account, resulting in the complainant’s account having an overdraft of $270 589,96.

They used the same modus operandi to defraud other unsuspecting depositors, resulting in them incurring overdrafts of more than $200 000.

Their criminal activities came to light on January 18, 2021 when one of the complainants was called by a CABS Bank official and informed that his account had an overdraft of $272 699,21.

Investigations were carried out, leading to the arrest of the accused person.-Newsday