A 38-year-old man was released on R10,000 bail after he allegedly defrauded a petrol station a staggering R1.5 million using cloned bank cards.
Bonginkosi Shongwe was granted release by the Middelburg District Court on Tuesday after voluntarily surrendering to the Hawks' Serious Commercial Crime Investigation unit. His co-accused, who appeared earlier, was also released on R10,000 bail.
The duo is expected back in court on Friday.
Meanwhile, Major General Nico Gerber, the Mpumalanga head of Hawks, expressed the unit’s commitment to tackling financial crime head-on.
"We are working closely with financial institutions and businesses to combat this type of crime and to bring the perpetrators to justice," he said.
In January, a 34-year-old woman was arrested while disembarking from a flight at OR Tambo International Airport for allegedly cloning bank cards.
Border Police arrested the woman after she touched down from a Qatar flight.
The Western Cape spokesperson for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (known as Hawks), Zinzi Hani said the woman faces charges of contravening the Electronic Communications Act and Cybercrimes Act.
“It was reported that between the years 2017 and 2018, the suspect was involved in compromising clients' card information while she was still employed at a car rental service at the Cape Town International Airport. Through preliminary investigation, it was discovered that the suspect gave the clients’ banking information to a syndicate who in turn manufactured cloned cards,” Hani said.
The matter was referred to the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team for further probing.
“The clients suffered a financial loss in the amount of R400,000,” Hani said.
The accused was transferred back to the Western Cape where she will face her crimes in a local court in Cape Town.
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