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Nyaradzo Bakari, Chronicle Reporter
A BULAWAYO man appeared in court yesterday for allegedly stealing $17 000 from his employer.

Mthokozisi Mhuri (40) from Old Lobengula suburb pleaded not guilty to the theft charge before magistrate Mr Lungile Ncube.

Mr Ncube remanded him out of custody to August 18.

Prosecuting, Mr Petros Shoko said Mhuri is a supervisor at Redan Service Station in Luveve.

Part of his job was depositing the company’s money at the bank.

He allegedly failed to account for cash sales he received from the cashier between April and June this year.

“Sometime between April 20 and June 30, 2017, the accused received $17 296,10 being cash sales from fuel attendants and recorded in the supervisor’s receipt book,” said Mr Shoko.

“Instead of banking the cash received into the company’s bank account, the accused failed to deposit the money, as evidenced by the company’s bank statement.”

Mr Shoko said Mhuri deposited lesser amounts than he was tasked to deposit.

In a statement presented to the court, Mr Tatenda Mahachi, the owner of the company, said Mhuri failed to account for missing deposit slips.

“On June 12, I accessed the internet to check for transactions made into my bank account by my employees,” said Mr Mahachi. “I went through the bank statement and realised that seven deposit slips were missing.”

“I travelled back to Bulawayo on June 15 and the following morning I asked the supervisor (Mhuri) about the missing slips and he told me he had deposited all the money and did not know about missing slips.”

Mr Mahachi said Mhuri told him he had lost keys and he suspected someone in the company had the keys and was stealing money from the safe.

In his defence, Mhuri said he did not commit the crime because he had lost keys to the safe where cash sales were kept.

He said he reported the matter to his manager Mrs Cathrine Mahachi, who was reluctant to change the lock system.

“I lost a bunch of keys which included the safe keys and bank box keys,” said Mhuri. “I reported the matter to the management namely Mrs Mahachi.”

“When I advised her to change the locking system for security reasons, she told me that it was okay.”

The court heard that an audit conducted in the company linked the missing money to Mhuri, who was then taken to Luveve Police station. — @NyarieBakie