Police arrest trio who were allegedly defrauding pensioners of their money and SASSA cards
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Newcastle Police have nabbed three suspects aged between 41 years and 51 years for allegedly scamming and defrauding pensioners of their pension cards and money.
The said three suspects, 41 years old Gugu Madulela, 51 years old Lindiwe Thango and 46 Thabane Mbhele made their first appearance at Vrede Magistrates Court on Friday March 12.
It is said according to information at our disposal that the suspects were pretending to be South African Social Services Agency (SASSA) officials seeking to help beneficiaries. Pensioners were then targeted where their cards were taken and swapped and money withdrawn.
Police Spokesperson in Free State Brigadier Motantsi Makhele said that the trio hired a motor vehicle on March 3rd leaving Newcastle KZN to Memel in the Free State where they went to a local post office looking for their victims but couldn’t find any.
Having found no victim, they proceeded to another township called Zamani going on a door to door campaign looking for potential victims.
“The trio apparently got to a certain house where they found a granny and her daughter aged 40. They asked the granny to give them her pension card and identity document so as to register her for food parcels. Then they swapped her original card with another unknown card without her noticing and went to Memel town where they withdrew all the money in the card and shared it amongst themselves” said Brigadier Motantsi.
