A tobacco company clerk allegedly manipulated tobacco prices and grades on the company's buying system to overpay farmers before collecting the excess cash from them.
The alleged scheme ran for several months, leaving the company out of pocket by more than US$38,000.
Osborne Chasowa, 40, of Chitungwiza, appeared before the Harare Magistrates Court charged with fraud.
The court heard that Chasowa was employed as a Grower's Clerk by a tobacco buying company.
Between March 10 and June 6, 2025, he allegedly accessed a co-worker's system account to alter tobacco buying records.
Prosecutors allege that he repeatedly logged into Debra Kadiki's account from his workstation.
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He then allegedly inflated tobacco buying prices and adjusted grades, resulting in farmers being paid more than they were entitled to receive.
After the inflated payments were processed, Chasowa allegedly collected the excess cash from the farmers.
The alleged fraud came to light when fellow Grower's Clerk Nomsa Chikowore noticed irregular activity.
She allegedly observed Chasowa using Kadiki's login credentials and flagged a transaction bearing barcode 103170684U, in which the buying price had allegedly been increased from US$4.80 per kilogram to US$5.15 per kilogram.
Chikowore reported the matter to management.
Further internal investigations uncovered additional inflated transactions that investigators allegedly linked to Chasowa.
As a result of the alleged manipulations, the company suffered an actual financial loss of US$38,527.75.
Nothing has been recovered.
Chasowa was remanded in custody and is expected to return to court on August 4, 2026.
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