NETONE LOSES US$1,3M TO DEALER

A Netone dealer registered 36 lines in the names of different customers, without their knowledge, and ran a criminal enterprise which resulted in the company losing more than US$1,3 million.

Tinashe Denhere, 30, appeared in court over the weekend charged with illegally distributing SIM cards and depriving the company of over US$1 million in revenues from international calls.

He was not asked to plead when he appeared before Harare regional magistrate Marewanazvo Gofa.

The State alleges that acting in connivance with an unknown sim box owner, who is still at large, Denhere is responsible for buying and reselling sim cards and airtime.

It is alleged that between June 2022 and Narvh 2023, Denhere bought Netone Sim Cards for re-sale from Netone shops in Eastgate, Westgate, Kamfinsa, Netone and Kopje Plaza, Harare.

Denhere fraudulently registered a total of 36 Netone lines. He activated and distributed 36 Netone Sim cards to the sim box owner. The sim box owner inserted the Netone Sim Cards in the sim boxes.

The sim box owner started using them without authority from Netone, thereby defrauding the company of revenue from international calls made on its network.

The complainant is Netone Cellular (Pvt) Ltd, which is being represented by Munyaradzi Hove. He is employed as a Fraud Management Manager.

On February 5 NetOne filed a police report after the offence was discovered in an audit.

The company suffered actual prejudice of US$1 337 488-92 and nothing was recovered. H Metro

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