Gauteng police today said that two additional alleged fraudsters involved in unauthorised R99 debit order transactions have been arrested.
The father and son pair handed themselves over to the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation in Johannesburg on Wednesday last week.
Captain Ndivhuwo Mulamu said that Ravenda Singh, 50, and his son Andrew, 26, are the directors of the Durban-based call centre, Sub User, where the syndicate siphoned at least R18 million from bank clients.
Mulamu said the pair was subsequently charged with fraud and later that day granted R30 000 bail at the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crimes Court.
“The suspects were linked through a forensic investigation carried out by the banks, which discovered undue debit orders through the suspects’ call-centre companies.
The accused allegedly created fraudulent bank payment system to collect debit orders for call-centres which resulted to unauthorised debit orders.”
The father-son duo’s case was postponed to 27 May 2022.
They will be joined by their co-accused Jason Foster and Richard Marsden who were arrested and also released on R30 000 and R100 000 bail respectively.
Foster was arrested in February this year before boarding a flight at OR Tambo International Airport whereas Marsden was nabbed in October last year at the Cape Town International Airport.
Foster and Marsden are also directors of the Durban based call-centre companies, Blue Debit and Talent Base.
The Hawks investigation revealed that the syndicate siphoned approximately R248 million from unsuspecting bank clients and transferred into different bank accounts allegedly linked to the syndicate.
