Dar businessman ‘jailed 81 years’ on forgery charges

THE Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam yesterday sentenced businessman, Timotheo Baja Wandiba (48), to a total of 81 years in prison for obtaining over 2bn/- by false pretences from the Bank of Africa (BoA) as bill of settlements.

Principal Resident Magistrate Joyce Minde convicted the businessman on 27 counts of obtaining money by false pretences after she was satisfied with evidence produced by 14 prosecution witnesses. The magistrate sentenced him to three years in jail for each count.

However, the magistrate ordered the convict to remain behind bars for only three years, since the sentence would run concurrently. During hearing of the case, the prosecution was represented by Senior State Attorneys Mutalemwa Kishenyi and Batilda Moshi.

Wandiba was charged along two others, Dickson Hokororo and Simon Efrem, who were acquitted for lack of evidence. The trio was also charged with 55 other counts of forging several requests for swift transfer forms of BoA, uttering false documents and money laundering.

In the judgment delivered by Principal Resident Magistrate Wilbard Mashauri, the trial magistrate ruled that such offences were not proved as required. The prosecution, however, pointed out after the session that they have not been satisfied with such holding and they intend to appeal to the High Court.

The prosecution had told the court that the accused persons committed the offences of forgery, uttering false documents, obtaining money by false pretences and money laundering between December 3, 2012 and April 30, 2014.

It was claimed that on various dates in Dar es Salaam, with intent to defraud, the accused forged several requests for swift transfer forms of Bank of Africa (BoA), purporting to show that Sogea Satom had requested the bank to pay TRACOM the said money as bill settlements.

The prosecution alleged further that within the same period, knowingly and fraudulently uttered the forged documents to show that Sogea Satom requested the bank to pay TRACOM the money, something which was untrue.

It is claimed further that within the period in question, with intent to defraud, the accused persons obtained 2,119,039,398/96 from BoA as bill settlements. Between December 2012 and April, this year in Dar es Salaam, according to the prosecution, the accused person acquired the money from an account operated by Sogea Satom at BoA to another account operated by TRACOM at National Micro Finance Bank (NMB).

The prosecution claimed that while doing such transaction, the accused persons knew or ought to have known the money in question was proceeds of a predicate offence, which is forgery.