A 37-year-old man received a five-year suspended sentence for fraud in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court.
|||Cape Town - A 37-year-old man received a five-year suspended sentence for fraud in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court on Thursday.
Dean Langeveld had pleaded guilty to 84 counts of fraud and one contravention of the Identification Act.
Prosecutor Ezmarelda Johnson told the court Langeveld opened an FNB savings account with a false identity document, and falsely stated that he was a floor manager with a packaging company, earning a net salary of R14 535.
According to the charge sheet, he used the bank cards supplied with his savings account for purchases totalling R21 166 at supermarkets, petrol stations, cellphone companies and Spur restaurants in 2006.
He told magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg that he had turned over a new leaf, and had not been involved in another crime.
He said he and a partner were now running a business supplying casual labour to the farming industry.
He said serious financial problems he experienced while unemployed had forced him into crime.
“I am truly sorry for what I did. When I think back, I cannot believe that I did this,” he told the court.
He said he was now earning enough to repay the bank in monthly instalments of R2 000.
Sonnenberg said she hoped he would run his business in an honest manner, and that the community expected him to behave and think in a responsible manner.
She warned him that he now had a criminal record, and that if he was convicted of theft or fraud again during the period of suspension, the suspended sentence would be put into operation. - Sapa