Pretoria - The Hawks in North West have welcomed the imprisonment of 55-year-old Welcome Marcus, who was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment by the Stilfontein regional court.
Hawks’ provincial spokesperson in North West, Captain Tlangelani Rikhotso said Marcus was sentenced for stealing R3 million at the Nedbank in Klerksdorp.
“On April 11, 2018, the accused and his accomplice were dressed in security uniforms when they went into a Nedbank branch at Anderson Street and indicated that they were there to collect money.
“They then collected an amount of R3 million and left the bank. It was only after they had left that the bank officials realised that the pair were bogus security officials,” Rikhotso said.
The matter was reported to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, also known as the Hawks, and it was investigated by the serious organised crime investigation unit.
“The investigation led to the arrest of the pair in Johannesburg on May 13, 2018.
“They made their first appearance in court facing charges of theft and were each released on R30 000 bail. The case was later dropped against the second accused while Marcus made several court appearances until he was ultimately convicted,” Rikhotso said.
Meanwhile, provincial head of the Hawks in North West, Major General Patrick Mbotho has saluted the investigation team “for their great work”.
He also lauded the work by the National Prosecuting Authority for the conviction and sentencing.
Last year, a 28-year-old former bank employee was arrested by the Hawks’ serious commercial crime investigation unit for allegedly stealing almost R37 million belonging to a deceased client of First National Bank (FNB).
“It is alleged that on April 25, the suspect, who was an FNB consultant at Makhado branch, opened the profile of the client who had just died in a vehicle accident a day before (April 24, 2022) without any authorisation,” Hawks spokesperson in Limpopo, Captain Matimba Maluleke said at the time.
“It is further alleged that the suspect connived with his accomplice to open a new bank account and linked it to the deceased's account and started spending all the money from the deceased’s account,” Maluleke said.
The Hawks said a total of R36 989 051 was looted from the deceased client’s estate.
Maluleke said the illegal activities were discovered by the bank, and a case of fraud and theft was opened with the Hawks.
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