A 27-year-old Waterval Boven Municipal employee was arrested by members of the Hawks Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team on Tuesday 09 March 2021 for fraudulent credit card transactions at the Machado Toll plaza.
The accused allegedly colluded with Thembi Pretty Qwebu (30) a toll booth operator. He reportedly supplied her with fraudulently obtained company credit cards from different banks to enable the unlawful transactions.
Qwebu was arrested on 21 December 2020, after she was found in possession of one of the mentioned credit cards. The modus operandi was that she would offer to swipe the card on behalf of motorists who made cash payments at the toll gate and pocketed the cash.
One of the banks initiated an internal audit which established that the illegal transactions were taking place at the said toll gate. More than R100 000-00 has reportedly been lost through similar transactions linked to the pair.
Following Qwebu’s arrest, she appeared in the Belfast Magistrate’s Court and was released on R1000-00 bail. She is expected back in court tomorrow, 10 March 2021 where she will be joined by the added suspect for his first appearance.