{"id":99788,"date":"2024-10-22T11:57:39","date_gmt":"2024-10-22T09:57:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/lawyer-fined-for-abuse-of-trust-funds"},"modified":"2024-10-22T14:11:50","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T12:11:50","slug":"lawyer-fined-for-abuse-of-trust-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/lawyer-fined-for-abuse-of-trust-funds","title":{"rendered":"Lawyer fined for abuse of trust funds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. <\/strong><\/span>FORMER Zanu PF MP and senior lawyer, Cuthbert Mpame, has been fined US$1 000 by the Law Society of Zimbabwe after he was found guilty of unprofessional conduct over his handling of trust funds.<\/p>\n<p>This followed a complaint by former NewsDay editor Wisdom Mdzungairi over how Mpame handled funds relating to Mdzungairi\u2019s purchase of land from the lawyer\u2019s property firm.<\/p>\n<p>Mpame was the MP for Zvishavane-Runde in the previous Parliament.<\/p>\n<p>In his letter, Council secretary Lynda Mapara said Mpame had neglected to adequately protect his client\u2019s money, violating By-Law 3(9) of the Legal Practitioners Code of Conduct and engaged in conduct that could potentially bring the legal profession into disrepute, in contravention of By-Law 3(20).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn April 4, 2024, the Council of the Law Society considered this matter. Council found you guilty of unprofessional conduct in that you neglected to protect a client\u2019s money where such protection was reasonably expected in contravention of By-Law 3(9) of the Legal Practitioners Code of Conduct SI [Statutory Instrument] 37 of 2018 and engaged in conduct that is likely to put the profession into disrepute in contravention of By-Law 3(20) of the Legal Practitioners (Code of Conduct), 2018,\u201d Mapara said.<\/p>\n<p>During a subsequent hearing on September 10, 2024, the Council reviewed Mpame\u2019s mitigation submissions but concluded that he had failed to maintain proper oversight of his trust account.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCouncil considered an appropriate sentence taking into account your submissions in mitigation. Council noted that a principal of a law firm had an obligation to oversee the operation of the trust account and account for all the transactions,\u201d council said.<\/p>\n<p>The complainant had confirmed that he was reimbursed for the trust money.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Council noted that the manner in which the trust funds were released to a third party based on verbal instructions created a troubling precedent.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, Mpame was fined US$500 for each of the two charges, which have to be settled within 30 days of the notification.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor the charge of neglecting to protect a client\u2019s money where such protection was reasonably expected that you be ordered to pay a fine of US$500 within thirty days of notification of the Council resolution,\u201d Mapara said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFailing which, an application for your suspension from practice for eight months will be made, for the charge engaging in conduct that is likely to put the profession into disrepute, you be ordered to pay a fine of US$500 within 30 days of notification of the Council resolution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFailing this, an application for your suspension from practice for a period of eight months will be made to suspend him from practice for eight months.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The ruling underscores the importance of maintaining stringent ethical standards within the legal profession and serves as a warning to practitioners regarding the management of client funds, observers said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About Zimbabwe Follow Africa-Press<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. FORMER Zanu PF MP and senior lawyer, Cuthbert Mpame, has been fined US$1 000 by the Law Society of Zimbabwe after he was found guilty of unprofessional conduct over his handling of trust funds. This followed a complaint by former NewsDay editor Wisdom Mdzungairi over how Mpame handled funds relating to Mdzungairi\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":99787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[19],"class_list":{"0":"post-99788","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-community","9":"tag-zimbabwe"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.1 (Yoast SEO v24.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lawyer fined for abuse of trust funds - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"FORMER Zanu PF MP and senior lawyer, Cuthbert Mpame, has been fined US$1 000 by the Law Society of Zimbabwe after he was ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/lawyer-fined-for-abuse-of-trust-funds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lawyer fined for abuse of trust funds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"FORMER Zanu PF MP and senior lawyer, Cuthbert Mpame, has been fined US$1 000 by the Law Society of Zimbabwe after he was ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/lawyer-fined-for-abuse-of-trust-funds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-10-22T09:57:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-10-22T12:11:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2024\/10\/sm_1729586396.408946.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"479\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/lawyer-fined-for-abuse-of-trust-funds\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/lawyer-fined-for-abuse-of-trust-funds\",\"name\":\"Lawyer fined for abuse of trust funds - 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