The appellant was an employee tasked with banking court funds. On 25 August, he drove from Filabusi to Bulawayo with cash amounting to $431 to deposit at the bank, but found one of the banks closed. He returned to Filabusi with the funds. He telephoned the Provincial Accountant requesting permission to bank the funds via electronic transfer, explaining that keeping the funds in his custody while spending the day in town posed a risk as there was no one to keep the funds in the safe. The Provincial Accountant advised him not to do an electronic transfer as it was not allowed and could get him into trouble, and offered to come and collect the money from Filabusi. Despite this instruction, the following day (Sunday), the appellant effected an electronic funds transfer into his employer's account instead of depositing the cash as originally instructed. He was charged with theft of trust property for converting the $431 cash to his own use.
The appeal was dismissed. The conviction for theft of trust property was upheld, as was the sentence of a fine of $500 or in default of payment 20 days imprisonment.
A person commits theft of trust property under section 113(2) of the Code when they hold trust property but deal with it in breach of the terms under which it is held, using the property for a purpose other than that for which they were obliged to use it. Electronic money/RTGS transfers are not legally equivalent to cash for purposes of trust property obligations. Where a person is entrusted with cash to be deposited in a specific form and manner, converting that cash to an electronic transfer without authorization constitutes theft of trust property, even if the full monetary value is transferred to the intended beneficiary's account. The criminal liability arises from the breach of the terms of the trust, not merely from any ultimate loss or deprivation to the beneficiary.
The court observed that the appellant's stated reason for wanting to do an electronic transfer (the risk of keeping funds while spending the day in town) was no longer applicable once he returned to Filabusi, suggesting that he could have simply kept the money safe and delivered it on Monday as instructed, particularly since the Provincial Accountant had offered to collect the money from Filabusi. This observation supported the inference that the appellant's conduct was not genuinely motivated by protecting his employer's interests but rather by his own convenience or purposes.
This case is significant in Zimbabwean criminal law as it clarifies that theft of trust property under section 113(2) of the Code is committed when a person deals with trust property in a manner inconsistent with the terms of the trust, even if the monetary value is ultimately transferred to the intended beneficiary. The judgment establishes that cash and electronic money are not legally equivalent for purposes of trust obligations, and that unauthorized conversion from one form to another constitutes a breach of trust sufficient to ground a conviction for theft of trust property. The case reinforces the principle that strict compliance with the terms of a trust is required, and that well-intentioned but unauthorized deviations from those terms can constitute criminal conduct.