Mugeza Hove(74) of Hertfordshire suburb in Gweru, who was recently jailed for 60 months for stealing residential stands belonging to River Valley Properties before selling them to unsuspecting clients, was on Friday rearrested for failing to pay restitution of USD85 000.00 by February 27, 2025, as ordered by Zvishavane magistrate in January this year.
When Mugeza’s deceased brother’s farm was acquired for urban expansion, he benefited from some stands under the government commonage facility.
River Valley Properties (RVP) developed the farm, but Mugeza then stole some stands belonging to the land developer and started selling them to unsuspecting clients.
According to court papers, Mugeza appointed an agent, who then started selling River Valley Properties stands through his company, Otichmar Investments.
Chikoore and his company were also convicted of theft and were ordered to restitute River Valley Properties’ money, amounting to USD 85,000, or risk having all the stands they sold repossessed.
Sentencing the two in January, Zvishavane resident magistrate, Mr Sengster Tavengwa, noted that Mugeza was an elderly man and suspended 12 months on the condition of good behavior, a further 18 months were suspended on the condition Mugeza performs 630 hours of community service at Thornhill Airbase.
He sentenced Hove to five years in prison but allowed him to avoid 30 months imprisonment if he repaid USD$85 000.00 to River Valley Properties, part of the stolen funds, by February 27, among other conditions set in the ruling.
According to the state outline, in 2017, Mugeza Hove engaged Otichmar Investments to sell his commonage stands in the Hertfordshire suburb.
Mugeza then gave Otichimar a list of Stands to sell, but some of the stands belonged to River Valley properties.
The property developer later realized that Mugeza was selling some of its stands and reported him to the police.
Despite the court’s clemency, he failed to meet the restitution deadline or seek an extension of the restitution period given by the court, prompting authorities this week to enforce the initially suspended prison sentence.
Hove is now serving a 30-month prison sentence at a local correctional facility.
Meanwhile, a warrant of execution against property will be issued against Otichmar Investments, the agent engaged by Hove to sell the residential stands, after it failed to comply with a court order to pay a restitution of US$85,000 to River Valley Properties.
