The duo was staying out of the country during the time their prime Belgravia commercial property was allegedly grabbed. The couple accused of illegally partitioning  the property were reportedly assisted by ZRP officers who were the same officers investigating their case. John Ronald Coumbis and his ex-wife Phillipa Anne Coumbis, the couple in question were accused of committing the crime alongside their son, Anthony Coumbis and George Nyashanu.

A letter of complaint was written to the ZRP over the conduct of these officers by the two long-term business partners Watyoka and Muponda.

The letter revealed that the couple even went on to use the duo’s property as collateral to secure a US$1 million loan with Kingdom Bank which was never repaid.

The letter dated March 16, 2021, addressed to officer commanding Harare province read:

“We have running cases in the courts regarding the fraudulent use of a building, Belgravia House, owned by this company, as collateral by one John Ronald Coumbis, George Nyashanu, Phillipa Ann Coumbis (John Coumbis’ ex-wife) and Anthony Coumbis. The fact of the matter is that we bought The Right Investments (Pvt) Ltd in 2003. We were mostly based out of the country between 2004 and 2014. When we came back, we set (out) to regularise properties that we owned and that included updating leases with tenants,”

The duo revealed that in the case of Belgravia House, they managed to seamlessly update the lease with an occupant of part of the building, Mica Hardware.

However, another occupant, Oxcam Trading, refused to comply claiming that the company had been given a 99 year lease for the occupied section of the building.

The letter continued:

“The matter ended up in court HC922/20, Application for Declarator. This case has progressed to the Supreme Court SC547/20 and is currently awaiting set down. Anthony Coumbis presented a fake CR14 in HC922/20 for The Right Investments (Pvt) Ltd, which showed his father, John Ronald Coumbis, and George Nyashanu, chief executive officer of Econet Insurance, as the directors of the company,” part of the letter read.

They then resolved that Muponda should file a police report highlighting the fraudulent CR14document (CR2762/11/19 CD)

“Mr Nyashanu, who had been cited by the Coumbis as one of the directors, distanced himself from the CR14 and made an affidavit to the High Court to the effect that his name had been used without his knowledge. This resulted in Anthony Coumbis being placed on remand. Unfortunately, we have not been able to confirm what became of this case,” the letter further read.

Muchingami, as revealed in the letter of complaint, was also the investigator for a fake police report against Watyoka filed by Phillippa Ann Coumbis.

After being confronted by Watyoka, the Assistant Inspector is said to have indicated that some unnamed “big people” had probed him to act in that fraudulent manner.

Officer commanding police in Harare, Newbert Saunyama, was yet to respond to the letter.

What are your thoughts on this matter?

Let us know in the comment section below.

The post Prominent businessmen take on ZRP in property fight appeared first on Provoker Magazine.