PRETORIA – Three suspects were arrested by the police in Rustenburg after attempting to defraud a cellular phone shop of R148 000.00 worth of cellular phones.
It is alleged that on Thursday, 12 August 2021 at about 10:00, three suspects aged between 30 and 33 went to the shop situated at Waterfall Mall in Rustenburg and pretended to be representatives of a certain company.
Moreover, the suspects informed employees that they were sent by the Company Director and they produced a fraudulent confirmation letter as well as fraudulent Identity Documents’ copies. The store manager became suspicious and informed the police.
Information was operationalised and members from Rustenburg Fraud Section attended to the complaint. The suspects were about to leave the store after finalisation of the transaction when the police pounced on them.
Furthermore, preliminary investigation revealed that one of the suspects defrauded the same company’s five cellular phones with an estimated value of R185 000.00 last month.
All three defrauded cellular phones were recovered while the vehicle in which the suspects were travelling in as well as their cellular phones were confiscated for further investigation. The possibility that these suspects might be operating as a syndicate and involved in a series of other fraud-related cases committed in Rustenburg, as well as other parts of the country, cannot be ruled out.
They will be charged with fraud and are expected to appear before the Rustenburg Magistrate’s Court on Monday, 16 August 2021. Investigation into the matter continues.
