A BULAWAYO woman has been arraigned before the courts facing forgery and fraud charges after she allegedly forged an acknowledgement of debt before using it to obtain a court order against a United Kingdom-based man.
Sithabisiwe Ncube (44), who works for the Bulawayo City Council, appeared before Bulawayo regional magistrate Collet Ncube, facing two counts of forgery and fraud.
She was remanded out of custody to October 17.
Her lawyer, Tinashe Tashaya of Tashaya Law Chambers, told the court that Ncube was being wrongly accused of fraud as the case was based on a genuine financial arrangement between her and the complainant, Timothy Moyo (61).
Tashaya said Ncube lent Moyo money and when he failed to pay back, she created a WhatsApp group that included Moyo and his wife to discuss repayment terms.
“Ncube will tell the court that this was not fraud but an arrangement between two parties,” Tashaya said.
“The discussions took place in a WhatsApp group, and she has messages to prove that there was communication about the debt and the amount owed.”
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Ncube did not forge Moyo’s signature and that the document was genuine.
“Ncube produced 14 pages of WhatsApp message extracts and a five-page outline of the repayment agreement, arguing that Moyo had offered to surrender his Mercedes-Benz and top up the remaining balance,” the lawyer said.
The court was told that for the first count, on October 13, 2023, Ncube allegedly forged an acknowledgement of debt purporting that Moyo owed her US$16 000 when in fact the debt was US$6 000.
She is also being accused of forging Moyo’s signature on the same document.
For the second count, the court heard that on September 2, 2024, Ncube allegedly submitted the forged acknowledgement of debt to the Bulawayo Civil Magistrates Court under case number CG352/24.
As a result, the court granted an order in her favour, leading to the attachment of Moyo’s property worth US$30 000, including a Mercedes-Benz E220 belonging to his wife.
The State alleges that Ncube acted unlawfully and caused Moyo to suffer actual prejudice of US$30 000 and nothing was recovered.
A report was made to the police, leading to Ncube’s arrest.
