Cape Town - A serial bank card scammer has been sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment on 59 charges of fraud in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crimes Court.
In a statement released on Friday, provincial spokesperson for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) Zinzi Hani said Vusumuzi Siwela, 47, faced numerous charges of fraud and contravening the Electronic Communications and Transactions (ECT) Act.
She said Siwela was arrested by the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team in May 2018 during a search-and-seizure operation.
Officers discovered that his home had been turned into a card-cloning lab.
Hani said Siwela was convicted on 23 counts of fraud and 36 counts of violating the ECT Act.
The court sentenced Siwela to 10 years’ imprisonment on charges of fraud, of which five years were suspended.
He was further sentenced to another 10 years’ imprisonment for contravening the ECT Act, of which five years were suspended for a period of five years.
Siwela will effectively serve five years’ direct imprisonment as both sentences were ordered to run concurrently.
In a separate incident, Lindelani Pert Gumede, 38, from uMhlanga, appeared in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Thursday on theft and fraud charges after he allegedly benefited from the Covid-19 Unemployment Insurance Fund relief funds to the amount of approximately R11 million.
It is alleged that between May 2020 and March 2021, Gumede submitted fraudulent documents to claim for the UIF relief funds under four bakeries located in Gauteng.
Further investigation by the Hawks revealed that Gumede was a private bookkeeper consultant for the four bakeries he allegedly defrauded.
During his arrest, officers seized luxury vehicles and land allegedly bought with the proceeds of the crime.
A preservation order has also been secured for Gumede’s finances and assets for further exploration.
He will be remanded in custody pending the investigation.
The matter has been postponed until Tuesday, August 31, where Gumede will bring forth a formal bail application in the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crimes Court.
African News Agency (ANA)