A HARARE man suspected of being a con artist and accused of stealing ATM cards from bankers before stealing money from his victims’ accounts, was nabbed at the weekend.
Report by Blessed Mhlanga
Samuel Puzumadu (25) of Chitungwiza appeared at the Kwekwe Magistrates’ Courts Monday facing four counts of theft after he allegedly stole $3 640 from four bank accounts in a grand scam.
The State alleges that on May 30, Puzumadu approached an unsuspecting Linda Kwashira at the ZB Bank ATM and observed her trying to withdraw money from the ATM, but having difficulties.
Puzumadu then allegedly offered to assist his unsuspecting victim.
The State alleges, he took the card and swopped it with another card, but Kwashira did not notice it.
He then inserted the card, which belonged to someone else in the ATM and asked Kwashira to enter her pin number which she did and Puzumadu memorised the number.
The transaction then failed and Kwashira took the card which belonged to someone else and left the ATM without noticing that her card had been changed. Puzumadu is accused of then using Kwashira’s card to withdraw $440 from the ATM after she had left.
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The State alleges that Puzumadu used the same trick on April 27 to steal $2 960 from army captain Dugson Chitsa’s ZB account, before hitting Melody Siwela of Silobela on May 24, stealing $240 and pouncing on a Zesa employee John Gondo on June 12.
Puzumadu, who was remanded in custody to today, was arrested by police detectives after a ZB Bank security officer spotted him trying to con Tobias Homerai at the bank.
Although he got away, the security officer managed to take down Puzumadu’s vehicle registration numbers of a blue BMW which has since been impounded by the police.
Upon his arrest, police discovered four ATM cards belonging to different people in the car.
