A 28-year-old Nando’s till operator has been convicted of defrauding her employer of over USD15 000 through a sophisticated point-of-sale (POS) manipulation scheme.
Cynthia Jongwe, of Jairos Jiri Road, Riverside, Gweru, was sentenced by the Gweru Magistrates’ Court.
The National Prosecuting Authority of Zimbabwe (NPAZ) said that Jongwe exploited her position of trust to execute the fraud.
“The offender, who was employed as a till operator at Nando’s, Gweru manipulated the point-of-sale (POS) system to create fictitious swipe transactions. She purported that the payments had been processed through Nandos Gweru’s POS machines.”
The fraudulent activity went undetected until an internal audit was conducted.
“The audit found that the transactions were false and no corresponding funds were credited to the respective POS terminals. The fraud was uncovered during an internal audit after the complainant’s audit team examined the offender’s swipe transactions and discovered that there were no records of the purported transactions.”
The full extent of the financial prejudice was confirmed after the matter was escalated to the banks. Outlining the financial investigation.
“The relevant banks were subsequently engaged and bank statements obtained confirmed that the funds had not been received by Nandos Gweru. The total financial prejudice suffered by Nandos Gweru was USD15 482.75 and nothing was recovered.”
Jongwe was sentenced to 40 months imprisonment. However, 5 months were suspended on good behaviour, 24 months were suspended on condition of restitution, and the remaining 11 months were suspended on condition that she performs 380 hours of community service.