Harare, Zimbabwe: The hyped case in Zimbabwe of Bezbets defrauding a client has been through many trials and now got postponed for another trial when the prosecutor on behalf of the company pleaded not guilty.
The fraud trial for betting company ‘Bezbets’ that was set to be conducted today has failed to kick off, as the case is now allocated to another prosecutor, who needs to peruse the records, the trial is now postponed to Feb 01, 2024 by the presiding magistrate.
Notably, Bezbets is facing allegations of defrauding a client of US $5,200 that he had won after playing a game. The manager of Bezbets, Robson Chinamasa, is currently representing the company in the court trials.
As per the sources, Chinamasa pleaded guilty on behalf of the company in relation to the fraud charges when he initially appeared before Harare Magistrate – Simon Kandiyero.
While Prosecuting, Faith Mayhudzi alleged that on Oct 26, on the Bezbets online platform, the complainant placed a bet on the roulette with a stake of US $394.
Moreover, the platform offered him a potential win of US $5,400 if the result and the bet were won. But after winning, the company refused to pay him and engaged him, with a view to paying him US $1,800.
According to the reports by the police, Bezbets, which is being represented by Brighton Pabwe from Venturas and Samkange Legal practitioners, has recently made a counter-report against the same punter whom they allegedly defrauded. But later, the matter was declined due to poor evidence.
The police also mentioned in its statement that there was no criminal element by the punter as the company was making allegations.
Notably, the actual case that followed is that the betting company Bezbets failed to pay the punter, who placed a bet and won more than US $5,000, after blocking his account in a bid to destroy evidence.
The complainant has been placing bets of more than US $50 and has won some of them.
After a scuffle with the complainant, the betting company deleted his account. The complainant then filed a report with the police.
The punter then, through his lawyers, wrote a letter demanding that Bezbets release the money within 24 hours.
Advocate Takaindisa then said that his client informed that he won US $5,400 on Oct 26, 2023 and on Oct 27, the complainant demanded the release of the money, upon which the company indicated that they could have given him US $1,800, contrary to the amount he has won.
Before blocking the punter’s account, the company took over 80 screenshots of his betting transactions with the company as proof.
The efforts to get a response from Bernard Zieve from the betting company failed as he refused to talk to the media. Later, the general manager of Bezbets said that the matter was before the courts.
The manager said, “I have nothing to say because the case is now being handled by Lawyers so that we will start from there.”
The complainant stated that Bezbets failed to pay him his money and demanded that they should refund him all the money exceeding the US $50 bets that he had been placing.
According to the Bezbets rules, the minimum stake per transaction is pegged at $2,000 and it does not mention any United States Dollar stakes. As per the Bezbets payout limits, a single is US $15,000.