YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN : TOP LAWYER DISOWNS BUILDER

Builder George Katsimberis now wants live media coverage of his trial on fraud charges, but his lawyer, Advocate Lewis Uriri, has distanced himself from this latest application and told the court his client was on his own on this one.

Katsimberis is facing charges of defrauding a local land developer of close to US$1 million in a housing deal involving Borrowdale cluster houses.

In the application, Katsimberis said live coverage would be good for both parties and for members of the public so that they have an idea of how the justice system operates.

Deputy prosecutor general Mr Micheal Reza opposed the application but said he would respond fully on November 9 since he was not told or notified about it.

Allegations are that on June 15, 2016, the developers entered into a joint venture agreement with Katsimberis for the construction of cluster houses at Stand 19559, Harare Township, Borrowdale, Harare.

Katsimberis then produced stamped architectural plans purporting they had been approved by the City of Harare, and that he had been given the green light to start building.

The court heard that the developer initially took it in good faith that the stamped plans presented to him by Katsimberis were genuine, until Katsimberis failed to perform according to the contract.

This led to the cancellation of the agreement in January 2018.

Upon further due diligence and inspection of the house which had been built by Katsimberis, it was discovered that the type of materials used in the construction of the model house, were allegedly not recommended by the City of Harare.

Further, its construction was never supervised. Katsimberis had allegedly fraudulently concealed the latent defects.

It is the State’s case that the developer made enquiries with City of Harare to establish if the approval of the accused’s plans was genuine and he was informed that the plans were not in their records nor were they ever approved through normal procedures as they had not been circulated round the relevant departments for approval as is the norm.

A letter dated July 8, 2019 from the City of Harare signed by director of works Engineer Zvenyika Chawatama, may be produced in court as exhibit.

City of Harare ordered the building to be demolished as it had been erected without approval and had been constructed using sub-standard materials.

The court heard that the developer suffered a potential prejudice in the sum of US$883 728.48 as a result of acts and omissions by Katsimberis. Herald

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