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Peter Matika, [email protected]

A HARARE-based company ganged up with two men and allegedly attempted to defraud a local insurance company, Old Mutual Insurance Company of US$80 000 by stage-managing a road traffic accident to claim the money.

Bulawayo Magistrate, Mrs Bongikosi Mkandla, heard this on Tuesday when Gift Fungai Gumbo (32), and Taboka Maphosa (32) from Harare who is also representing Jen Technologies Private Limited appeared before her facing fraud charges.

They were remanded out of custody to November 21 for trial. Prosecuting, Mr Acumen Khupe said on January 22 last year Jen Technologies undertook comprehensive insurance to the tune of US$80 000 for a black BMW X5 vehicle that expired on January 21 this year.

Jen Technologies set its limit for third-party insurance to US$20 000. “On 13 October 2022, Gumbo, Maphosa, and Jen Technologies put a plan in motion to defraud the complainant. At about  8.45pm, Maphosa and Gumbo stage managed a road traffic accident involving the insured BMW vehicle and a Jeep Cherokee along Douglasdale Road in Burnside suburb, Bulawayo,” said Mr Khupe.

The court heard that Maphosa claimed to have been involved in an accident with Gumbo who was purportedly driving the BMW, while he was supposedly driving the Cherokee.

The “scene of the alleged accident” was “attended” to by police, where Maphosa is said to have paid a fine of US$3 for driving without due care. “On 20 October 2022 and following the stage-managed accident, Jen  Technologies lodged a claim of US$80 000 with Old Mutual indicating that Maphosa had been involved in a road traffic accident and that the BMW was a write-off,” said Mr Khupe.

Gumbo who had a Zimnat insurance third party cover valid from 2 August 2022 to 1 December 2023 went on to make a claim of US$19 425,98 from Jen Technologies’ insurance cover for his vehicle.”

Mr Khupe said Old Mutual then engaged an external assessor Mr Shadreck Bazaar of Hartley Risk Consultancy. Mr Bazaar concluded that the damages on the vehicles were not consistent with the alleged accident and recommended further investigations.

During the process of assessing the authenticity of the claim, Old Mutual discovered that Maphosa and Gumbo were friends and had in actual fact connived to defraud the company.

In their submissions, the pair claimed they did not know each other and were only connected through the accident.

“Phone records of Maphosa and Gumbo prove that there were several communications between them prior to the alleged accident,” said Mr Khupe.