Choppies till operator in court for fraud

A TILL operator employed by Choppies supermarket in Bulawayo appeared in court Monday for allegedly defrauding the retail outlet by using her ecoโcash to transact sales worth $3 702.8.
Sukoluhle Ndebele, who is employed at Mountain View Choppies outlet in Lobengula West, appeared before magistrate Tinashe Tashaya facing seven counts of fraud.
Prosecutor, Mufaro Mageza told the court that Ndebele was tasked to receive both cash and eco-cash transactions into the companyโs system.
But between November 20, 2018, and 7 January this year, the accused allegedly devised a way to defraud Choppies Supermarket by making fake eco-cash transactions.
โThe accused person captured invoices and only entered smaller amounts into Choppies eco-cash account so as to print the receipt under a non-existing eco cash number. She converted the difference into her own use,โ Mageza argued for the state.
Ndebele is also accused of defrauding Choppies Supermarket by putting a fictitious value on purchased goods.
โThe accused person would proceed to charge goods by scanning them at the till point and the system would then give a value of the goods that would have been scanned. However, the accused would enter a dummy value to the supermarketโs account while the difference of the value is converted to her own account,โ said the prosecutor.
The offence came to light when the companyโs accountant, Thandeka Moyo was auditing Choppiesโ eco-cash statement and discovered the anomalies.
Upon further investigations, the biller report showed Ndebeleโs employee number and identity marker number as well as her Econet mobile phone number.
As a result of Ndebeleโs alleged fraudulent activities, the company was prejudiced $3 702.8 and nothing was recovered.
Magistrate Tashaya remanded Ndebele to March 14 for trial.