Durban - A Durban ‘con man’ has been brought to book after allegedly terrorising a local doctor for the past five years.
The Hawks’ spokesperson in KZN, Lieutenant Simphiwe Mhlongo, said the 34-year-old man had, since 2011, been visiting the 49-year-old woman doctor - whose identity is unknown - regularly, pretending to be a member of the Hawks.
“He told her he was investigating a case of corruption against her and asked for protection money,” Mhlongo said.
The woman had, over the years, handed over an amount of money, but police are still trying to ascertain exactly how much.
She approached a moneylender when, most recently, the man asked her for R800 000.
The person she approached told her she had done nothing wrong, that there was no basis for a case of corruption against her and she should go to the police.
“An operation was swiftly conducted and an undercover police officer was present during the collection of the money,” Mhlongo said, “He (the con man) was immediately arrested and charged with extortion.”
The man was arrested in Avoca on Friday night.
He was expected to appear in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
This is not the first time criminals have posed as police officers to scam unsuspecting victims out of their money.
Last month, the Daily News reported that a man who masqueraded as a police officer from Interpol and demanded R300 000 bribe money from a suspect in Mpumalanga would remain in custody after he was refused bail.
And last July, our sister paper, the Pretoria News, reported that the Hawks had arrested seven suspects, including a convicted criminal, for allegedly impersonating a police officer in a money-making scam.
Daily News