PROMINENT businesswoman Jane Mutasa has been arrested over an alleged $750,000 airtime swindle at mobile phone operator, Telecel.

Mutasa appeared in court on Monday and was remanded in custody to March 19.

The Telecel board member is charged along with her personal assistant Caroline Gwinyai and Telecel’s regional sales manager, Charles Mapurisa.

Police say they are looking for Telecel’s commercial director, Naquib Omar, who is believed to have fled to Botswana.

Prosecutors say some Telecel employees linked to the alleged scam are voluntarily giving information to the police.

The alleged swindle came to light in September last year when Telecel ordered an audit which found that mobile phone sim-cards and recharge cards worth $1,7 million were unaccounted for.

Investigations revealed a loophole which prosecutors allege had been used by Mutasa’s company, Oxygon Investments, to spirit away sim-cards and airtime worth US$750,000 with no intention to pay.

Prosecutor Tawanda Zvekare told a Harare magistrate that Mapurisa and Omar deliberately ignored a July 15 directive to cease all use of manual invoicing and log all sales into an electronic database.

Subsequently, the duo allegedly connived to release 30,000 sim cards, also known as seed packs, valued at US$300,000 and airtime recharge cards worth US$450,000 to Mutasa’s company using an invoice book which has since vanished.

The goods were delivered to Oxygon and received by Mutasa’s PA, Gwinyai.

In court, lawyer Charles Chinyama, representing Mutasa and Gwinyai, unsuccessfully argued for Gwinyai’s release. The lawyer said she was a “mere personal assistant” whose only connection to the alleged crime was receiving goods on behalf of her employer.

Chinyama indicated they would be arguing that Omar, who is Mapurisa’s direct boss, should be responsible for any breach of Telecel’s invoicing procedures and not the mobile phone operator’s clients.