A man who went on a spending spree with cloned bank cards was jailed for three years by the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court.
|||Cape Town - A man who went on a spending spree with cloned bank cards was jailed for three years by the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Cape Town on Thursday.
Riaan Alexander, 40, a divorced father, appeared in plea-bargain proceedings in court before magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg.
He pleaded guilty to 48 counts of fraud, 53 contraventions of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (ECTA), and violations of the Identification Act.
In addition to the three-year prison sentence, he was sentenced to eight years, conditionally suspended for five.
According to prosecutor Jacques Smith, Alexander was arrested at a Sea Point residential guest house with alleged accomplice Charl Roux.
The spree also involved two waiters at Mitchell's Brewery at the V&A Waterfront, who received “kickbacks” for fraudulent purchases at the pub.
Among those affected by the cards were Absa, HSBC, Bank of America, American Express, Diner's Club, Sun International, Protea Hotels and First National Bank, involving a total of R271 485 between May and October last year.
Defence lawyer Dominika le Roux said Alexander had lost the trust of his wife and family, who had separated from him.
He was “systematically trying to prove remorse and correct his wrongdoing”, she told the court. - Sapa