FREE STATE – A 41-year-old suspect was arrested on Tuesday, 08 March 2022 by the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team based in Bloemfontein for allegations of fraud.

His arrests originates from an incident which took place during the period of January 2021 where one of the accused, who introduced himself as Mosia, approached the victim and promised her that he can arrange a tender to be allocated to her from the Department of Health.

The accused demanded that 10% of the value of the tender be paid to him in advance before the tender would be allocated. The total value of the bogus tender was estimated at R720 000 and the accused demanded that the amount of R72 000 must be paid to him. The victim then paid the amount of R72 000 to the accused. During another meeting with the accused, while discussing the contract, the suspects at that time arrived and pretended to be police officials who then accused the victim of committing corruption.

They then demanded money from the victim in order for her to avoid arrest. The victim then paid the total amount of R650 000 to them because she was afraid of being arrested. As a result of the misrepresentations, the victim was prejudiced and suffered a total loss of R722 000.

The matter was then reported to the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation for further investigation which culminated to the arrest of the suspect and the other two accused Liabeng Icknatia Hoffman (43) as well as Siza Isaac Mokwena (43) who were arrested in September last year.

The suspect is expected to appear before the Bloemfontein Magistrates’ Court tomorrow on Wednesday, 09 March 2022.

Source: South African Police Service