WICKNELL WAS NABBED AT THE AIRPORT

Businessman Wicknell Chivayo was arrested at the airport as he headed out to South Africa. Prosecutors revealed this as they opposed bail ...

Businessman Wicknell Chivayo was arrested at the airport as he headed out to South Africa.

Prosecutors revealed this as they opposed bail for Chivayo saying the businessman was a flight risk.

“Fraud is a crime of deception and the total prejudice is $5 607 814,24 and of that amount, not even a single cent was recovered. The accused and his accomplices have managed to hide that money, The likely sentence of fraud is a maximum prison term of 35 years. If that will not induce a man to run away, then I do not know what would.

“The docket is almost complete and it is most likely that on his next remand, the State will furnish him with a trial date. The State has a strong watertight case. There is this public perception that people who have money can buy their freedom hence this court should lay that perception to rest and show that the law is fair regardless of one’s position in the society,” said the prosecutor.

But Chivayo’s lawyers, Advocates Lewis Uriri and Onias Takaindisa, argued that their client was a proper candidate for bail.

Adv Uriri dismissed the State’s claims that Chivayo was a flight risk. They argued that it was published in local press that Chivayo was wanted by the police and even though he was in America at the time, he returned to Zimbabwe.

“Even when he came back, no one contacted him and, through his lawyers he wrote to the Prosecutor General telling them he was not on the run and that they knew where to find him than to look for him through the press,” he said.

Adv Uriri said when he was arrested at the aiport, his client had bought a return ticket meaning he was not running away.

The court heard on October 23, 2015 that the ZPC acted on the misrepresentation and signed a contract with Chivayo’s company for implementation of the Gwanda solar project.
It is alleged that the ZPC released $5 607 814, 24 into an Intratrek bank account for the project to take off.

Chivayo is said to have converted the money to his personal use. The court heard he was also authorised by the RBZ to load $849 479 into his Visa cards for importation of earth moving equipment from America and nothing came into the country. Herald