Lusaka businessman Spend a night in jail after a magistrate revoked his bond upon learning that he allegedly fraudulently obtained about K9,000 benefits by altering his age.
Daniel Kapakala, 49, a business consultant of Kamwala, allegedly changed his year of birth on the national registration card (NRC) so that he could be eligible to get benefits from National Pensions Scheme Authority (NAPSA).
Kapakala is charged with uttering a false document.
On July 17 this year in Lusaka, Kapakala allegedly fraudulently uttered a claim form for Zambia National Provident Fund and a certified copy of an NRC to Namataa Mwendabai, a NAPSA employee.
The matter came up for trial yesterday before magistrate Nsunge Chanda.
Testifying in the matter, NAPSA chief security officer Augustine Chishimba said between October last year and January this year, he received a list of names of people claiming their benefits.
“It was discovered that people were fraudulently trying to claim benefits by altering their ages to qualify for the claims,” Mr Chishimba said.
He then collected NRCs for people who were ineligible for the claims since they were below the stipulated age for one to qualify for the package.
Mr Chishimba said only those above the age of 50 are eligible to claim their benefits.
He said on June 25, he went to NAPSA headquarters where he instructed clients under the age of 50 to give him their NRCs.
“On that day, two NRCs for Kapakala and Henry Bwalya indicated that they were not eligible for the claims since they were aged 49 and 48 respectively,” Mr Chishimba said.
He then asked NAPSA customer care service to alert him whenever Kapakala and Mr Bwalya took their claims.
On July 17 this year, while at NAPSA Levy Business Park office, the authority’s customer care service informed him that Kapakala had filed a claim for benefits.
“I was amazed to discover that the claim forms indicated that Kapakala was 50 years old. When I checked a copy of the NRC he submitted earlier, I discovered that the birth year on the latest document was altered from 1968 to 1969,” Mr Chishimba said.
Kapakala failed to justify why he submitted an NRC with altered details and was arrested.
During cross-xamination, Kapakala revealed that he actually received the benefits on July 30 while investigations were going on.
At this point, magistrate Chanda ordered the detention of Kapakala and advised the prosecution to add another charge to the indictment.
“They have to charge you for receiving money you were not entitled to,” magistrate Chanda told Kapakala, who was on bond.
She granted him a K10,000 bail in his own recognisance.