Cape Town - A waiter who allegedly cloned bank cards of restaurant guests appeared in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court on Thursday.
Brown Tumba made his seventh appearance in the Cape Town court before magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg, who set down his trial for April 15.
He was expected to plead to 17 counts of fraud, four violations of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, and one of conspiracy to commit fraud involving R19 555.
According to the charge sheet, the 29-year-old Zimbabwean national was a waiter at the Haiku and the Bhukara restaurants in the Cape Town CBD.
In September 2011, Aletta Breitenbach and friends celebrated her daughter's birthday at Bhukara. Breitenbach and one of her friends, Guy Johnstone, decided to split the bill, and both paid with their credit cards. Tumba was their waiter. The next week they both realised their cards had been compromised.
As both had only used their cards at the eatery, they suspected Tumba was the culprit, according to prosecutor Denzyl Combrink.
The pair reported their losses to Absa bank, who passed the matter on to the police. Officers allegedly found two bank cards in Tumba's possession, issued in the name of Citibank South Dakota in the USA, and two reprinted credit cards.
Sapa