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The eight who included two women and three juveniles were arrested after spending the night buying beer and groceries using fake United States dollar notes and getting change in genuine money.
Edmore Nyandumba (34), Benjamin Mubango (30), Kenneth Nyamuganda (23) and three juveniles were all illegal miners based in Gwanda.
They had gone to Tsholotsho to spend hundreds of fake notes they had in their possession and picked two prostitutes from Bulawayo, Thelma Khanye and Merit Sibanda on their way to Tsholotsho.

Nyandumba, Mubango, Nyamugonda and the juveniles were all from Mutare and had gone to Gwanda to do illegal mining.
On 24 October this year, the eight arrived in Bulawayo in the afternoon and boarded a bus to Tsholotsho where they arrived at 4pm.
Nyandumba and Mubango picked Khanye and Sibanda from Gwabalanda as girlfriends and went with them to Tsholotsho with the intention of spending all the fake cash and come back with real money.

The eight appeared before Tsholotsho resident magistrate Mr Toindepi Zhou facing 13 counts of fraud.
Nyandumba, Mubango and Nyamugonda pleaded not guilty to the charges but were convicted together with their accomplices who had pleaded guilty.
The three juveniles were sentenced to receive six strokes and in addition six months in prison.

However, they were lucky to escape custodial sentence after the six months were wholly suspended on condition of good behaviour.
Nyandumba, Mubango, Nyamugonda, Khanye and Sibanda were each sentenced to 12 months in prison.
They told the court they got the money from   the illegal moneychangers in Bulawayo commonly known as osiphatheleni.

The court was told that Nyandumba gave the whole gang the fake notes so that they could spend on beer and groceries in different shops and get change in real money.
They had bunches of $50 and $20 notes, some of which had similar serial numbers.
They would swap bases once their transactions were successful to avoid being caught and identified.

The fake notes were discovered at about 4am by one of the businessmen who then alerted the police.
The eight regrouped in the morning at the bus stop to prepare for their journey back to Bulawayo.

They were arrested while still at the bus stop and two $20 notes were recovered.
Police also recovered about $662 and R682 rand  which they had been given as change from the shops they bought from.

Groceries worth $74,70 were also recovered from the eight accomplices while about $510 fake different denominations was recovered from the different business people.
All the money was forfeited to the State.
Mr Tawanda Tsatsa prosecuted.