R1000 bail for former FNB employee accused of stealing R400k from customer’s account

A former Eastern Cape bank employee who faces numerous charges of fraud has been granted bail in the Gqeberha Specialised Commercial Crime Court. Picture: File

A former Eastern Cape bank employee who faces numerous charges of fraud has been granted bail in the Gqeberha Specialised Commercial Crime Court. Picture: File

Published Sep 17, 2021

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A former employee of First Nati­onal Bank has been released on bail by the Gqeberha Specialised Commercial Crime Court.

Lwando Dingiswayo, 30, was granted R1000 bail after being arrested by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) on numerous charges of fraud and being in contravention of the Electronics Communica­tions and Transactio­ns Act.

According to the Eastern Cape provincial Hawks spokesperson, Captain Yolisa Mgolodela, it is alleged that between December 8, 2017, and February 14, 2018, the FNB investment account of a German national was accessed by two employees.

She said the contact information of the account holder was changed, the signing authority on the account was cancelled and a new signing authority was granted to a fictitious John Mackay who supposedly formed part of a syndicate.

“Mackay is further al­leged to have transf­erred funds from the investment account to the client’s cheq­ue account and attem­pted to withdraw mon­ey from the cheque account without suc­cess.

“When the trans­action was unsuccess­ful and the account was put on hold, Mackay somehow managed to transfer the bala­nce of R400​ 000 in the investment account to a Standard Bank acc­ount that was opened using fraudulent do­cumentation,” Mgolodela said.

She said the money was successfully withdrawn from the Standard Bank account before the account was frozen shortly afterwards.

The German national who owns the bank account was not in South Africa during the alleged fraudulent activities.

Mgolodela said the account had a balance of R6 million and an actual loss of only R400 000 after several failed fraudulent transactions.

The complaint was received by the Hawks in March 2018, and an investigation into the matter led to Dingiswayo’s arrest on Wednesday.

She added further arrests are imminent.

Dingiswayo is expected back in court on September 29.

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