CROOKED CLEARING AGENT JAILED
The Nakonde Magistrate Court has sentenced a Clearing Agent of Ntindi Village to 12-months imprisonment with hard labour for altering false import documents.
Teddy Sikaonga, 29, was found guilty on eight counts for changing import documents in order to clear goods with the Zambia Revenue Authority, ZRA.
The court sentenced him to 12 months Imprisonment with Hard Labour on each count but suspended the sentence for a period of twenty-four months.
The Magistrate court also ordered that Sikaonga will not conduct any business with the Zambia Revenue Authority as a Clearing Agent for a period of 1 year 6 months effective from 23rd July 2020.
Failure to observe the order will result in Sikaonga serving a term of imprisonment of the suspended sentence.
Facts of the matter are that Sikaonga presented false documents, namely four invoices and four bills of lading to Genuine Logistics Limited and Dumela West Freight Limited, both Clearing Companies to make declarations on his behalf.
This is because the Clearing company he was working for had been suspended by ZRA from conducting business.
The import documents he presented to the two companies showed that four trucks were carrying water pumps being imported into Zambia by Universal Mining Chemical Industries of Lusaka when in fact not.
It was further established that the four trucks were in fact carrying clothing materials, empty bottles, assorted household items and building materials which were not imported by Universal Mining Chemical Industries but for other importers.
The motive for using the falsified documents was to avoid paying taxes because water pumps are zero-rated.
This is contained in a statement issued to ZNBC News by ZRA Corporate Communications Manager, Topsy Sikalinda.