Bank staffer ‘forced’ to commit fraud after syndicate threatens his family

A temporary bank staff member, who was arrested for fraud, claims threats on his family forced him to try to steal money, the Hawks said on Saturday.

Hawks spokesperson Lwando Zenzile said Qhamani Jemsana, 30, appeared briefly in the Uitenhage Magistrate’s Court on Thursday after he was arrested on the same day.

It followed a probe into allegations of fraud by the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation Unit.

Zenzile says that, in May 2018, Jemsana, who was temporarily employed at a bank in Uitenhage, was approached by an unknown syndicate that supplied him with an unauthorised bank card.

“They instructed him to link it to another client’s account to enable them to steal money from the said account, which had a substantial amount of money. The syndicate members reportedly threatened to harm his family if he didn’t do as ordered.”

Jemsana then asked a colleague to do it on his behalf as he was restricted from performing certain transactions.

“The colleague reported the matter to the manager and a Hawks [investigation] ensued, resulting in Jemsana’s arrest for his role in the attempted theft,” said Zenzile.

Jemsana was granted R1,000 bail and is expected back in the dock on 3 September.

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