Car importers lose US$100 000 to Siyaya Trading boss who pretended to be a Be Forward agent

A car sale director is on the run after 17 car buyers were swindled of US$100,000, police said Monday.

Evans Dilingilizwe Mbasopi, who operated from Harare Mall Joina City’s second floor, allegedly duped the car buyers into believing that his company, Siyaya Trading, was a local partner of the Japanese vehicle export company, Be Forward.

Between January 1, 2023, and February 28, 2023, police said Mbasopi had taken orders and told his customers that their vehicles would take eight weeks to be delivered.

But police say while half of the US$102,636 paid by the car buyers was paid to a vehicle seller in Japan, Siyaya Trading and its directors converted the other half to their personal use.

“The Zimbabwe Republic Police is now appealing for information that may lead to the arrest of one of the directors of the company, Evans Dilingilizwe Mbasopi,” police spokesman Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said in a statement.

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