TWO TelOne employees and three other accomplices have been arrested in Bulawayo for allegedly defrauding the telecommunications company of nearly $700,000.

The fraud was unearthed during an audit.

The five suspects appeared before Magistrate Gladmore Mushove yesterday facing fraud charges.

They were not asked to plead and were remanded in custody to today for bail application.

Mushove heard how Thembile Sondida, 53, and Chelesile Nkatha, 33, who are employed as credit control clerks by TelOne, teamed up with three others Thokozani Moyo, 48, Abel Nyika, 46, and Farai Chawira, 36, to defraud the parastatal of $688,369, 95.

Prosecuting, Gerald Mutsindikwa said between April 30 and November 15 last year, Moyo, believed to be the mastermind, offered tips to his accomplices on how to defraud the company.

“Nkatha and Sondida would get tips from Moyo so that they include fake payments coded transactions on the firm’s expenditure voucher,” said Mutsindikwa.

He said the expenditure voucher would then be referred to the other members of the syndicate.

“Nyika and Chawira would conceal the cash shortages by issuing falsified RTGS allocation vouchers by not capturing (SBIC) coded transactions and then go on to purport to have captured them on the daily remittance sheet and counter balance book,” said Mutsindikwa.

He said Moyo would approve all the transactions and give instructions to the group.

“There are documentary exhibits that were generated by the accused persons during the commission of the crime,” said Mutsindikwa.

A TelOne audit report revealed that the five had prejudiced the company of $688,369, 95.

Moyo and Nyika are set to appear in court today for allegedly stealing another $4,000 from TelOne in a separate case. Noleen Makhurane source-chronicle