Two bank card skimmers were sentenced last week to 18 months imprisonment at Witbank Magistrate’s Court.
Mzwakhe Ephraim Madonsela (44) and Godwin Vilakazi (35) appeared once again in the regional court to hear their sentence on Tuesday, July 31.
The pair was first arrested in April 2012 after investigations implicated them in several cases in Mpumalanga of theft, malicious damage to property, possession of illegal Point of Sale (POS) devices and conspiracy to commit crime. They were subsequently granted bail but absconded court proceedings.
While on the run, they continued to commit similar offenses. Hawks Serious Commercial Investigation unit’s probe revealed that the pair was part of a syndicate that had been operating for a while.
They were arrested in 2016; bail was opposed successfully after they made a series of court appearances culminating in their recent conviction and sentence.
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In October 2016 at 20:12 Madonsela inserted coins into the Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) card reader slot and pushed them with a card. He then inserted other coins into another ATM before pushing them in with a card.
At 20:30 Vilakazi insert coins into another ATM, he also inserted more coins into another ATM at 20:40 before swapping a customers bank card.
In November 2016 another customer’s back card was skimmed in Mandela Street.
The suspects were arrested shortly afterwards.
It cost the company about R1000 to repair the damaged card reader slots. There were five counts against the pair: First count was for theft, second count was for malicious injury to property in November 2016, the third count was for malicious injury to property in October 2016; the fourth count was malicious injury to property in October 2016 and the fifth count was for conspiracy to commit offence in November 2016.
On count one Madonsela was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, on count two Vilakazi was sentenced to six months imprisonment, on count three Vilakazi was sentenced to six months imprisonment, on count four Vilakazi was sentenced to six months imprisonment and on count five both were sentenced to six months imprisonment.
The sentences of imprisonment on count five shall run concurrently with the sentences of imprisonment of counts one, two, three and four.
