A 28-year-old till operator was on Tuesday sentenced to 340 hours of community service after she was convicted of defrauding Nando’s Gweru of US$15 482.75 by allegedly creating fictitious swipe transactions on the restaurant’s point-of-sale system.
Cynthia Jongwe, of Jairos Jiri Road, Riverside, appeared before the Gweru Magistrates’ Court facing a charge of fraud.
The court heard that while employed as a till operator at Nando’s Gweru, Jongwe manipulated the restaurant’s point-of-sale system to process fictitious swipe transactions.
She allegedly made it appear that customers had paid for their purchases through the restaurant’s POS machines when no such payments had been made.
The fraud was uncovered during an internal audit when Nando’s audit team examined Jongwe’s swipe transactions and found no corresponding records of the purported payments.
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The relevant banks were then contacted, and bank statements confirmed that no funds had been credited to Nando’s Gweru accounts in connection with the transactions processed by Jongwe.
The restaurant was prejudiced of US$15 482.75 and nothing was recovered.
Jongwe was sentenced to 40 months in prison.
However, the court suspended the entire sentence on different conditions. Five months were suspended on condition of good behaviour, while 24 months were suspended on condition that she restitutes the stolen money.
The remaining 11 months were suspended on condition that Jongwe performs 340 hours of community service.
She was therefore ordered to serve 340 hours of community service, with the prison sentence hanging over her subject to the conditions imposed by the court.
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