Their appearance follows their arrest by the Hawks’ Middelburg and Secunda-based Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team.

It is alleged that in October 2021, Sizolethu Richard Sindane, a regular customer of Centex Fluid Products Africa (PTY) LTD, used to purchase products by sending an email to the company with a list of required items.

The company would then package the stock and inform him when it was ready for delivery.

The complainant would deposit the money into an FNB bank account, and the goods would be delivered.

It is further alleged that the main suspect in this matter, a former SANDF employee, fraudulently accessed Sindane’s email account and altered the email.

The suspect sent an email to Sindane, pretending to be Theo Phillipou of Centex Africa, using an altered email address to inform him that his stock was ready for delivery and that he must send the payment.

Sindane claimed he had made the payment, but the company stated that they had not received it.

The suspect then told Sindane that their banking details had changed and provided a new bank account number.

Sindane subsequently deposited the money into the new account provided by the suspects.

The complainant suffered a loss of R741,000, which was deposited into one of the suspect’s personal bank accounts.

This suspect is still to be arrested.

During the investigation, it was confirmed that the company had not received the payment from Sindane.

Evidence was established linking five suspects from Gauteng Province who received the money into their personal bank accounts.

The team traced and executed warrants of arrest against Mahlangu and Mokoena, who appeared in court and were released on R1,000 bail each.

The case was postponed to 23 October, pending the arrest of the other three suspects.

The investigation is ongoing.