Cape Town police have arrested a 33-year-old man suspected of defrauding city hospitals by posing as a doctor.
|||Cape Town - Police have arrested Gabriel Junghänel, 33, the German suspected of defrauding hospitals in Cape Town by posing as a doctor.
He faces charges of fraud, and had been remanded, said police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Andre Traut. Junghänel also used the surnames Mesko, Mesco and Maiwald.
Police said he allegedly impersonated a doctor and would deal with suppliers on behalf of hospitals and then disappear with newly delivered equipment.
“The suspect’s last-known address in central Cape Town was visited and a large quantity of medical equipment and doctors’ uniforms were confiscated in July,” said police spokesman Colonel Tembinkosi Kinana.
His arrest came on the day that he contacted the Cape Argus to complain about news reports that identified him as the scamster being sought by Woodstock police.
“I was shocked and disgusted after being informed about your article… I have never stolen a thing in my life but I am and always was socially active from church to society involvement,” he wrote to the Cape Argus.
Andreas Sommer, of Sommer Engineering and Consulting in Somerset West, also originally from Germany, contacted the Cape Argus in August and alleged that Junghänel stole R50 000 from him by duping him into paying the money into a bank account as part of a business deal between the two countrymen.
“I spent more than R250 000 on legal fees and travelling… to put pressure on authorities to bring Junghänel to book,” Sommer said.
Junghänel is due back in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.
daneel.knoetze@inl.co.za
Cape Argus