Cape Town – An alleged bank scammer was arrested at an attorney’s office, for allegedly filing a false bank statement and a false salary slip with an application for a bond, a court in Cape Town heard on Thursday.
Akhile Gaji appeared in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Bellville before magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg.
He is on trial on four charges of forgery, two of fraud and two of uttering (the presentation of a forged document for fraudulent purposes), and has pleaded not guilty.
Lieutenant Jocubus Beukes, of the Western Cape Commercial Crime Investigation Unit, told the court that he was tipped off that Gaji was on his way to an attorney’s premises at Tyger Valley, to sign for a bond, in October, 2013.
At the attorney’s premises, Gaji was pointed out to him, and arrested.
He said Gaji’s wife was with Gaji at the attorney’s office and he arrested her as well, but released her when it transpired that she knew nothing of her husband’s alleged misdeeds.
Beukes said he approached Gaji after he had signed the bond agreement.
“I introduced myself to him, arrested him and informed him of the reason for his arrest.”
“The accused was very confused and I read to him his rights, such as that he could engage a privately-funded lawyer, or ask for legal aid.,” Beukes said.
At Beukes’s office, Gaji said he wanted to make a statement, as he had “nothing to hide”.
Gaji then told Beukes that he had met a man known only as John, who asked how things were with him.
Gaji told John that business was not so good, because he had been “blacklisted”.
John offered to assist him, but all that Gaji knew about John was that he worked for a bank.
Gaji furnished John with his ID document which John said he needed to remove Gaji’s name from the blacklist.
John told Gaji to contact him in future, if Gaji “wanted to do something”.
Beukes said Gaji was unable to give him any further information about John – no address or telephone number – which prevented Beukes from tracking John down and following up the information.
Gaji claimed that John had furnished him with the false bank statement and salary slip to support his bond application.
Cross-examined by defence attorney Andre Pienaar, Beukes said the bank would never have granted Gaji the bond, had the bank known that the bank statement and salary slip in support of the bond application were false.
Pressed about the false bank statement, Beukes said: “All I had to investigate was whether the bank statement and salary slip were in fact fraudulent.”
According to the charge sheet, Gaji bought a house for R1 180 000, in Goodwood in the Western Cape’s northern suburbs, but the transaction was subject to Gaji obtaining a bond.
Gaji handed the bond application to an estate agent, who submitted it to the company, Community Bonds.
Community Bonds passed the application onto FNB, and prosecutor Ezmeralds Johnson alleges that the bank discovered that the salary slip and bank statements supporting the application were forged.
This forms the basis for one fraud charge, two of forgery and one charge of uttering.
On the remaining charges, Gaji is alleged to have submitted a bond application to an estate agent, on behalf of Gaji’s nephew Wiseman Tsehlana.
Likewise, this application was submitted to FNB via Community Bonds.
It was only after FNB had approved the bond, that the bank discovered that the salary slip and bank statements in support of the application, were false.
The nephew is currently serving a prison sentence for his part in the scam.
The case continues on September 29.
ANA