Social Media Personality Guilty of Eating Without Paying
He snatched the restaurant manager's cellphone which had been left on the counter while the owner was attending to other customers.
Social media personality Kudakwashe Hove, who is known on social media as @iamhove, has been found guilty of eating food worth ZWL$364,500 at a local restaurant without paying.
Hove pleaded guilty to defrauding Sabai Thai Restaurant in Ballantyne Park, Harare.
He also pleaded guilty to a theft charge for stealing the restaurant manager’s cellphone. Hove snatched the cellphone which had been left on the counter while the owner was attending to other customers.
He was expected to be back in court on Tuesday, 17 January for sentencing.
Allegations were that on 10 January 2023, at around 7 PM, Hove went to the restaurant where he ordered a takeaway. He then approached the cashier and indicated that he had paid for the takeaway using a Zipit transaction.
Hove allegedly went on to send a fake confirmation message to the receiving mobile number and presented it to the cashier as “proof of payment”. The cashier processed the order but later noticed the fraud after Hove had already left the restaurant.
The restaurant was duped of food worth $96,300 on this occasion. As if that was not enough, on 12 January, Hove returned to the same restaurant around 5 PM and ordered food worth $268,200. He used the same tactic and went way after producing another fake proof of payment.
Hove was finally caught when he tried his luck for the third time and was handed over to the police.
