“Garudzo said his brother-in-law Neshena had promised to take him to the UK to cover up the offence, but he never fulfilled the promise”
by TZN Correspondent/Herald
A Zimbabwe man Bernard Neshena named in court to have financed ,a convicted fraudster who stole a corpse from a hospital mortuary, burnt it beyond recognition in a fake accident before defrauding Old Mutual Funeral Services of $70 000, is a care worker at BUPA’s St Christopher’s Nursing Home in Hertfordshire.
While the Herald reports that Police in Zimbabwe say that they are still looking for Neshena, who is believed to be the chief architect in the commission of the crime, Police Spokesperson Charity Charamba could not confirm whether Neshena is wanted or not.Neshana, when contacted by theZimbabwenewslive denied any financial deals with Garudzo although he accepts they are related.
Facts are that David Garudzo (27), his brother Bernard Garudzo, wife Primrose and in-laws hatched a plan to defraud Old Mutual of thousands of dollars in March last year.
As part of the plan, Garudzo opened a funeral benefit plan with Old Mutual with a cover amount of $20 000 where his wife and two minor children were listed as beneficiaries.
UK based Neshena who lives in Welwyn Garden City , would send money to subscribe to Old Mutual monthly.
Three months later, the funeral policy cover was upgraded to $70 000 and Garudzo religiously paid the monthly subscriptions.
In July 2014, Garudzo hired a Toyota Spacio from Mr Norman Magaya of Rusape and drove to Mutare together with his accomplices.
They engaged a mortuary attendant at Mutare General Hospital who assisted them to smuggle out a corpse of an unknown man.
The corpse was thrown at the back of the vehicle and they drove towards the Garudzo homestead in Mangomera Village under Chief Makoni.
When they reached Takunda Dam near Odzi, Garudzo placed the corpse in the driver’s seat before pushing the car off the road purporting that it had been involved in an accident.
He later set the vehicle ablaze and the corpse was burnt beyond recognition.
Jecha, acting on Garudzo’s instructions, went to Old Mutual in Mutare where she reported that her husband had died in a traffic accident near Takunda Dam before claiming the insurance cover.
Jecha was carrying her husband’s policy documents, a certified fake copy of Garudzo’s death certificate, a police traffic accident report, copies of her own and Garudza’s identity cards and proof of residence. On February 23 this year, Jecha was given $70 000 by Old Mutual as cover for her husband’s death.
During mitigation, Garudzo pleaded with the court for a lighter sentence saying he only got $7 000 from the offence while the bulk of the money was sent to his brother-in law Mr Neshena in the UK.
Garudzo said his brother-in-law Neshena had promised to take him to the UK to cover up the offence, but he never fulfilled the promise.
UK has extradition treaty with Zimbabwe as a category 2 country .
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