Tuesday, 24 October 2023

LAWYER IN TROUBLE OVER FORGED CERTIFICATE

A LAWYER has appeared in court for allegedly fraudulently obtaining a certificate of conversions for his foreign degree in order to practice in Zimbabwe although he had passed only two of the eight modules he was required to write to be allowed to practise.

The complainant is the State, represented by Mr Joe Zimba, who is the finance and administration manager for the Council for Legal Education. 

Elijah Kudzai Mbiriri, who is represented by Mr Progress Maringamoyo, is employed by Kajokoto and Company as a legal assistant. He appeared in court yesterday facing fraud charges before regional magistrate Mrs Marehwanazvo Gofa and was remanded out of custody to December 14.

In 2017, Mbiriri graduated from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya, with a Bachelor of Law degree. As with all lawyers who graduate with a law degree from a university outside Zimbabwe, he needed to write the required examinations and be granted a certificate of conversion with the Council for Legal Education before he could practise in Zimbabwe. 

This is common around the world as even a well-trained lawyer needs to be able to convert from the system taught at the university they attended to the system and particular laws in their own country.

So in 2018, Mbiriri enrolled with the council to write the required eight conversion examinations. In June 2020, Mbiriri sat for one module in civil procedure and passed. He went on to register for four modules in June 2021 in criminal procedure, evidence, statutes and ethics. But while he passed ethics, he flunked the other three.

After writing only five modules out of the required eight, and managing only two passes, he was helped by Huggins Duri, who is still at large, who gave instructions through email to Fidelity Printers and Refiners, to print a certificate of completion for Mbiriri. 

The certificate was processed and Duri collected the printed certificate at Fidelity Printers and Refiners and gave it to Mbiriri, who accepted the certificate of completion, although he knew that he had sat for only five modules out of the required eight and had only passed two. Herald





0 comments:

Post a Comment