A group of men linked to the death of a Johannesburg man allegedly at the hands of a stripper and her boyfriend appear to be part of a major fraud syndicate.
Yesterday four men linked to the death of Dustan Blom, whose body was found in the boot of his car at a popular casino in September, appeared in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on fraud charges.
Brothers Louis and Henrich Coetzee, together with Ian Manyika, applied for bail. They, along with Alex de Kooker, are charged with fraud after withdrawing R119 767 from Blom's bank account. De Kooker, who has three previous convictions, decided not to apply for bail.
Former Lollipopo Lounge stripper Maruschka Robinson and Jean-Pierre Malan have been charged with Blom’s murder.
Yesterday, Louis Coetzee, 29, was unsuccessful in his bail application after the court learnt he had broken his bail conditions related to an earlier fraud charge. His brother Henrich, 32, and Manyika were granted bail of R10 000.
Earlier, prosecutor Yusuf Baba said the state had evidence that the four were part of a “very sophisticated” syndicate creating fraudulent identity documents and stealing money. When Malan was arrested he was allegedly in possession of several fake identity documents.
A statement by the investigating officer read to the court stated that between September 18 and 23, following Blom’s death, the four accused, together with Robinson and Malan, swiped Blom’s bank cards numerous times.
Records show that there were 27 attempts to withdraw money from Blom's account in this period, while CCTV footage at various ATMs and at Montecasino allegedly implicate all six accused.
The investigating officer also claims to have uncovered 51 phone calls between Manyika and Malan during the time. The Coetzee brothers disputed that they illegally used Blom's bank cards.
All six accused are back in court in January.
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 
