HARARE – A 27-year-old Harare man has been sentenced to an effective two years in prison after defrauding a local recruitment company of nearly US$70,000 in a fake United Kingdom employment sponsorship scheme.
Takunda McDonald Pfende was convicted by the Harare Magistrates’ Court for fraud after falsely claiming he could secure United Kingdom Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) for healthcare workers seeking employment abroad.
According to the National Prosecuting Authority of Zimbabwe (NPAZ), the fraud took place between May and July 2023. Pfende convinced Path Quest Overseas (Pvt) Ltd, a registered Zimbabwean company that trains healthcare professionals, that he could facilitate UK sponsorship certificates for its clients.
Acting on his representations, the company collected US$5,000 from each of 58 clients and transferred a total of US$69,856 to Pfende for the promised certificates of sponsorship.
However, Pfende failed to deliver the documents and later became evasive. Path Quest Overseas was forced to refund its clients before reporting the matter to the police.
Investigations established that Pfende had no authority to process or issue UK Certificates of Sponsorship, and none of the stolen funds were recovered.
The court sentenced him to five years in prison. One year was suspended for five years on condition of good behaviour, while a further two years were suspended on condition that he restitutes US$65,665 to the complainant. This leaves him with an effective prison sentence of two years.
Following the conviction, the National Prosecuting Authority urged members of the public and recruitment agencies to thoroughly verify the credentials of individuals or companies offering overseas employment opportunities.
The authority also encouraged victims of fraud to report such cases promptly to law enforcement agencies to help curb employment-related scams.
