Hutchins (43) and Kennedy (48) were acquitted after the state dismally failed to prove that the two connived to swindle more than 627 417 tonnes of maize worth US$116 583.35 from resettled black farmers.The magistrate said the state failed to give enough evidence that the two directors connived with their agent Peter Kenneth to buy grain at US$150 per tonne. The two, through their defence counsel, Raynos Gumbo of Gumbo and Associates, argued that they gave their agent enough money to procure the grain at US$350 per tonne.
The state also failed to gather enough evidence to show the role played by the two directors in swindling the farmers of their grain. Allegations against the directors are that sometime last year, they connived to swindle farmers from Mazowe, Glendale and Bindura of their maize and soya beans. Hutchins and Kennedy are alleged to have misrepresented the desperate farmers with an intention to defraud them portraying to be genuine buyers.
The court heard that the two took advantage of the scarcity of both local foreign currencies in the country at that particular time to swindle farmers.
The finalization of the matter took nine months, becoming one of the longest cases ever tried at Bindura magistrate courts. Munyaradzi Mataranyika represented the state.
Post published in: News