A suspect in a case regarding fraud that occurred in Kroonstad was arrested at the OR Tambo International Airport on Wednesday, 4 October.
The accused, Stewart Garner (64), appeared before the Kroonstad Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
The fraud case stems from an incident in 2018 when the victim in this case received a bank notification on his cellphone that R860 000 had been withdrawn from his account; this had been done without his authorisation. Shortly thereafter, he received another notification of an additional R50 000 having been withdrawn. The victim approached Absa’s Kroonstad branch to report the matter, then opened a criminal case at the police station in Kroonstad.
The case was registered and handed over to the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team based in Welkom for further investigation.
An investigation was conducted in which police discovered the money had been transferred from the victim’s account to a Standard Bank account, allegedly belonging to Garner. It was further revealed that the money was used to buy Bitcoin. A warrant of arrest was issued during 2020.
The case has been postponed to 12 October, and Garner was granted R10 000 bail.
