Son takes on father in Dandaro ownership wrangle

Michael Mashiri

A Harare man stands acccused of defrauding his son when he sold the prime retirement village of Dandaro Village, for US$250 000.

Graham Garnet Metcalf Hall, 86, of Borrowdale Brooke appeared before magistrate Marehwanazvo Gofa and was remanded out of custody to July 27.

Hall is accused of defrauding Lakeland Ventures Private Limited represented by its director Gregory Graham Hall.

Hall was married to Gregory;s mother, the late Noreece Lesley Hall but the couple divorced.

The State, through prosecutor Anesu Chirenje, alleges that on January 7, 1998, Lakeland Ventures Private Limited through its director Noreece Lesley Hall completed a payment of US$1 million to Wenham Investments for the purchase of Dandaro village.

However, on May 11, 2005, Graham allegedly lied that he bought Dandaro village from Wenham Investments Private Limited and fraudulently caused the Registrar of Companies and Deeds to act upon that misrepresentation and transferred Dandaro village into his name under deed number 2675/2005 knowing that the property was bought by Lakeland Ventures Pvt Ltd.

On March 18, 2008, Gregory Graham Hall and Lesley Hall were appointed Directors of Lakeland Ventures Pvt Ltd. On the same day, Lesley Hall was also appointed Secretary of the Lakeland Ventures Pvt Ltd.

The court was informed, Graham was dismissed from the directorship of Lakeland Ventures Pvt Ltd through a resolution of minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on May 18, 2008, and he never owned any shares in the company to date.

The court heard that Noreece died on November 3, 2010, and was still a director but no longer owned any shares in the Company as she had previously donated and transferred all of them to her son Gregory.

However, it is alleged that sometime in 2016, Graham sold Dandaro village to Stephen Heathcote Hacker for US$$250 000 and payment was made into Wintertons Legal Practitioners trust account.

On January 23, 2017, he also caused Registrar of Deeds to transfer Dandaro village from his name into Stephen Heathcote Hacker name under deed number 346/2017.

Gregory discovered the offence and reported the matter to the police and investigations carried out led to the arrest of his father.