A BOGUS estate agent who once dragged former war veterans’ minister Chris Mutsvangwa’s son to court on rape allegations has been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.
Ruvimbo Mitchel Tserai, 27, was last Friday convicted of four fraud counts at own guilty plea.
She landed in the dock for defrauding scores of accommodation seekers after advertising and renting the same house to multiple people when the property was already leased to another tenant.
She will however, serve 18 months effective after 6 months of the sentence were suspended on condition she restitutes two complainants by May 12 this year.
The sentencing came as Tserai was still performing community service at a school in Waterfalls for similar offences.
In mitigation Tserai begged magistrate Lazini Ncube not to give her custodial sentence saying she was ready to reform.
“I don’t have any previous convictions. The offences I was convicted for happened at the same time with the current offences. It’s only that complainants reported at different times,” she said.
“I beg the court to forgive me and be lenient with me. I want to finish my community service for my first offences and I’m willing to do good with the complainants. I want to pay them back.”
However, in aggravation, prosecutor Francesca Mukumbiri urged the magistrate to give Tserai a custodial sentence saying she was a stain on the society.
“Her offences are serious and call for a deterrent sentence,” said the prosecutor.
“When she committed fraud, she used different names. She was known as Ruvimbo Tatira on cases she was convicted of and she told court she was 31 years old but now all that has changed.
“Criminality is in the genes of the accused and she is a danger from the society, she should be removed from the society for her own good, it will give her a chance to reform.”
Court heard she used the names Ngirozi Events, Mitchel Rue, Runako Reinventing Beauty and Juliet Matiza among other names on Facebook to dupe unsuspecting victims.
It is state’s case that Tserai would advertise a property in Mabelerign which was already occupied on her Facebook account using a different name.
One of her victims, Tatenda Mhembere, paid $400 to Tserai. He was supposed to occupy the house on February 1 this year.
However, when he wanted to move in Tserai told him that the occupant was refusing to leave.
Court heard she kept on giving false excusing, prompting Mhembere to file a police report.
