A Tygervalley restaurant waiter who was caught in possession of an illegal skimming device used to clone bank cards, was fined R5,000 or five years jail on Friday.
Bheki Shaun Maseko, 25, was also sentenced to 12 months jail, conditionally suspended for five years, and fined an additional R10,000 or five years jail, also suspended for five years. Effectively, he had to pay the R5,000 fine on Friday, or face five years in prison.
Maseko appeared in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Bellville before magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg.
The proceedings took the form of a plea bargain, negotiated by defence attorney Lifa Matyobem with advocate Siphokazi Makanda representing the State.
The magistrate said the sentence was “fair and just”, and declared Maseko unfit to possess a firearm.
The case arose from complaints about Absa Bank card fraud at the restaurant in question, received by the bank’s forensic fraud investigator, Drikus Gouws.
Gouws visited the restaurant on an evening in October, 2013, and found Maseko in possession of the skimmer.
A skimmer records card data which can then be download and transposed onto a new card for fraudulent use against the lawful card holder’s account.
An analysis of the skimmer revealed the illegally stored data of various bank clients, including one who had received SMS messages relating to two fraudulent withdrawals from his account, amounting to R2,100.
Maseko pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to commit fraud, and three violations of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, including the illegal possession of the skimmer.
The prosecutor listed as aggravation of sentence that Maseko would still be making fraudulent transactions had he not been caught with the skimmer, and that bank card fraudsters operated on an international platform, making arrests, investigations and successful prosecutions “almost impossible”.
– African News Agency (ANA)
