Two former employees of Paramount Garments, Tapiwa Peter Mugava and Claymore Takabvirwa, appeared in court over the weekend, facing charges of defrauding the company and stealing material valued at over US$200,000.
The court heard that in 2023, Paramount Garments imported fabric from China, worth US$146,406. The material was cleared by Freight World Clearing and arrived in Zimbabwe in January 2023. It was then taken to the Customs Services warehouse at 67 Coventry Road, Workington, on February 5 for safekeeping.
Two days later, Mugava allegedly contacted Customs Services, requesting the release of the goods, claiming they were for Paramount Garments. Mugava and Takabvirwa, both employed as shipping clerks, went to Customs Services, loaded the material into two trucks—registration numbers AEL 2535 and AFJ 1107—and took the goods under the pretense that they were transporting them for their employer.
However, instead of delivering the goods to the company, the duo sold the material and split the proceeds between themselves. On July 22, when the operations manager at Paramount Garments went to collect the fabric, he was told that the material had already been retrieved. The manager filed a police report, and subsequent investigations revealed that the stolen goods had been sold to Clemente Situ. Eleven rolls of fabric, worth US$1,364, were recovered.
The total value of the stolen material from this incident amounted to US$146,406.
In a separate case, the court heard that the pair also diverted fabric worth US$63,176, which had been imported from China through Freight World Clearing. The duo allegedly offloaded the fabric at Speed Hulk in Willowvale, where they sold part of the material to Makanjera Zisengwe. They split the money between themselves, and nothing was recovered from this theft.
On a third count, Mugava and Takabvirwa are accused of stealing property worth US$55,000.
The total value of the stolen goods across all incidents is estimated at over US$200,000. Investigations into the case are ongoing, and the two men are facing serious charges.
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