Airport immigration official in court for fraud

A Department of Immigration employee stationed at the Harare International Airport has been arraigned before the Harare Magistrates Court on allegations of conniving to extend a Chinese national’s stay in the country.

Tafadzwa Gotore (25) of Tynwald South, Harare, is alleged to have fraudulently date-stamped the Chinese national, Wang Teng’s passport.

It is the State’s case that sometime in November last year, Teng sought a visa extension from the Immigration Department to regularize his stay in Zimbabwe and Gotore was allegedly asked by one Maxine Hope Maparure to facilitate the deal.

The State alleged that Gotore committed the offence working in cahoots with a male colleague at her workplace.

When the matter came to light, investigations revealed that Teng never left Zimbabwe through any border post and the date stamp which was on the passport was inconsistently endorsed.

This led to Gotore’s arrest by police officers stationed at the airport’s border control unit on charges of abuse of office as a public official.

The investigating officer in the case, Sergeant Chrispen Dear, alleges that the accused could be part of a syndicate that was fraudulently date-stamping foreigners’ passports in the country.

Gotore was remanded to January 27 on $100 bail.

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