THE High Court has sentenced a Chinese, Weng Tak Fung, who was General Manager of Fortune Cement, to seven years imprisonment for forging signature of his boss, Kuang Jian Bin, transferring 20,000 shares worth 1bn/- to another company, Kanak Industries DMCC.
Judge Juliana Masabo imposed the sentence in absentia against the Chinese, the respondent, after allowing the appeal lodged by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the appellant, to oppose the acquittal by the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam.
The judge ruled that the evidence produced by the prosecution during the trial proved beyond reasonable doubt that the respondent committed the offence. At the time the appeal was heard, the respondent was outside the country.
In her judgment, however, the judge disagreed with the appeal by the DPP against the decision of the trial court to acquit the respondent, in respect to the second count of uttering the forged document to the Business Registration and Licensing Agency (BRELA).
“In view of what I have demonstrated, I allow the appeal to that extent, quash the discharge in respect of the first count and substitute it with a conviction. Considering that the Respondent is not in court, I proceed to sentence him to seven years imprisonment,” she ruled.
She recalled that the offence of forgery is defined under section 333 of the Penal Code to mean the making of a false document with intent to defraud or to deceive.
As rightly argued by the appellant, she noted, for the prosecution to establish the offence of forgery there must be three fundamental elements namely, there is a false document; it is that the accused made the document, and lastly, that, the accused made such document with intent to defraud or deceive.
“With regard to the first element, I have found that the prosecution through the testimony of (Kuang Jian Bin) ably established the complainant was not in the country, when the transfer documents were signed,” the judge pointed out.
She observed that according to exhibits tendered, Kuang Jian Bin had a 90 days visa allowing him to stay in Tanzania from February 4, 2015 to May 4, 2015 whereupon leaving the country, he did not return until May 7, 2017 when he once again obtained a 90 days visa.
Whereas, the judge said, the transfer of 20,000 shares worth 1bn/- was executed on September 30, 2015, hence, he could not have signed the transfer documents.
In the instant case, she said, the prosecution case established that the forgery was intended to make the Chairman of Kanack Group, a company on whose favour the shares were transferred, believe it was Bin who executed the transfer and the person who did so was fully aware that he did not execute the forms.
