Cape Town -Two cyberthieves have been sentenced for fraud and money laundering, contravening the Electronic Communication and Transactions Act.
Silindilizwe Ntini, 45, and Lwazi Madondo, 35, were sentenced at the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crimes Court last week.
The State proved that the two were involved in bank card cloning scams with their co-accused, Arthur Qedinda Dube, who is currently serving an eight-year sentence for the same charges from 2019.
The State said all the accused were linked to various fraudulent transactions around Cape Town malls between 2017 and 2018.
Lieutenant-Colonel Siyabulela Vukubi of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) said hard work by their teams produced success in the conviction and sentencing of these suspects.
“On June 30, the two accused appeared in Bellville Specialised Commercial Crimes Court for sentencing after they were found guilty in December last year,” he said.
“The Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team worked around the clock in proving that all the three accused were actually working together in these scams until December 2022, when the two were also found guilty.”
Ntini was found guilty of five counts of fraud, three counts of money laundering and 15 contraventions of the Electronic Communication and Transaction Act.
Madondo was convicted of seven counts of fraud, three counts of money laundering and 27 contraventions of the Electronic Communication and Transaction Act.
Ntini was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment on all charges and Madondo received eight years’ imprisonment.
The provincial head of DPCI (The Hawks) in the Western Cape, Major-General Mathipa Makgato, said he applauded the members for this achievement as people suffer a great deal from these kinds of scams.