A 38-year-old man, Bonginkosi Shongwe, was granted R10,000 bail after allegedly defrauding a petrol station out of a staggering R1.5 million using cloned bank cards. Shongwe, who voluntarily surrendered to the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation unit, appeared before the Middelburg District Court on Tuesday. His co-accused, who had already been in court earlier, was also released on the same bail amount. Both individuals are scheduled to return to court on Friday.
The Hawks are making it clear that they are determined to crack down on financial crime, as emphasized by Major General Nico Gerber, head of the Hawks in Mpumalanga. “We are working closely with financial institutions and businesses to combat this type of crime and to bring the perpetrators to justice,” Gerber stated, signaling the unit’s commitment to targeting these financial fraud operations head-on.
In another related case, a 34-year-old woman was arrested in January for allegedly cloning bank cards. The woman was apprehended by Border Police at OR Tambo International Airport as she disembarked from a Qatar flight. According to the Western Cape spokesperson for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks), Zinzi Hani, the woman is facing charges related to the Electronic Communications Act and the Cybercrimes Act.
The investigation into the woman’s activities dates back to her time at a car rental service at Cape Town International Airport, between 2017 and 2018. During this period, she reportedly compromised clients’ banking information, which she then supplied to a syndicate that manufactured cloned cards. As a result of this operation, the clients suffered a collective financial loss of R400,000.
Following her arrest, the accused was transferred back to the Western Cape, where she will face charges in a local Cape Town court. The Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation unit is continuing to investigate the wider syndicate involved in these fraudulent activities, aiming to uncover more details and bring all perpetrators to justice.
