FREE STATE :  A 47-year-old pastor is expected to appear before the Kroonstad Magistrates’ Court today where he will be facing allegations of fraud.

It is alleged that in 2013, the suspect encouraged members of his church to invest money into his company with a promise of getting lucrative returns after a year. Unfortunately, the victims did not receive their money as agreed.

After several contacts with the suspect, the congregants then persuaded him to pay back the original amount they invested. None of their requests were honoured. As a result, the victims suffered a total loss of more than R3 million.

The matter was then reported to the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation based in Welkom for further investigation which culminated to the suspect handing himself over to the investigators this morning where he was charged.

Source: South African Police Service