KABOKWENI – Local police have sent a stern warning to residents who open false cases of housebreaking and burglary.
According to the police station’s spokesperson, Const Shirley Ngomane, there have been a huge number of such cases reported where, upon investigation, police discovered they were false.
“We found out that people report that their houses had been broken into only to find out that they had borrowed money from loan sharks and when they fail to pay, the loan sharks take the furniture as payment,” said Ngomane.
She also related a similar incident which took place in Nkohlakalo where a family was cleaned out of their furniture by a local loan shark.
Ngomane said that resources were used to conduct a thorough investigation and all leads pointed them to a loan shark who, upon questioning, told the police that he had no choice but to keep the furniture until he received his payment.
“We urge the community to be honest about their complaints because time and money are used in investigations.
If we establish that a complainant has lied, we will charge him with perjury,” Ngomane added.
She further stated that loan sharks should be warned that the fact that someone owes them money didn’t give them the right to barge into their home and take furniture without following proper procedure such as obtaining a court order.
