KwaZulu-Natal - Police have arrested an alleged conman who is believed to have lured three women from Newcastle to Durban with the promise of jobs in the eThekwini municipality.
They had acted on a call from a supervisor of a building in Durban’s South Beach area, where the women were staying with the 33-year-old man.
Metro police, SAPS and Flying Squad officers arrested the man at Olympia Court early on Tuesday.
Police spokesman Colonel Vincent Mdunge said the man had been charged with theft by false pretenses and would appear in the Durban Magistrate’s Court soon.
Mdunge said the man had allegedly promised people jobs at the municipality in return for between R1 200 and R1 500.
The three women were also taken away in a police van.
Mdunge said they would return to their homes in Newcastle.
According to the building supervisor, who did not want to be named, she had never seen the women before Tuesday.
“The man took over renting an apartment in the building a month ago from a woman who had originally been renting the place and has since moved to Richards Bay.
“He was always evasive when I asked for a copy of his identity book,” she said.
“When I arrived at my work station [in the foyer] this morning, I saw one of the young women running down the stairs and the other two women coming out of the lift.
“I did not recognise them and they had not signed into our visitors’ register. When I questioned them about which apartment they were staying in, they were very vague and said they were going out to buy airtime.”
The supervisor, of 25 years, who is also a member of the Point Community Policing Forum and local ratepayers’ association, kept them in the foyer and called the police.
She said the police searched the flat for drugs.
The flat was spartanly furnished with a double bed, ironing board and iron, a camping chair, two-plate stove, two pots and a kettle.
Clothes and luggage were strewn over the floor after the police search. - Daily News