Suspect walks into cash depot empty-handed and leaves R9-million richer

The Hawks in the Northern Cape on Tuesday say they are still looking for a man who duped a cash depot into handing over R9-million to him.

The man and his accomplice took off with the loot without any aggression‚ without any hostages‚ without any guns or explosives.

The tale of how they made off with the funds sounds like something from a movie.

According to police‚ the suspect and his accomplice arrived at the depot on December 8‚ just ahead of the Christmas rush‚ clad in security uniforms.

"The duo pretended to be security guards from another cash-in-transit security company expected to collect cash for Cash Paymaster Services. They were allowed entry and were further allowed to make a pickup of cash to the value of R9-million‚" said Captain Philani Nkwalase.

A short while later‚ however‚ the real security officials arrived and were shocked to discover that the R9-million loot they were there to pick up had already been taken.

Police have this picture‚ taken off the CCTV footage‚ of one of the suspects. The picture however‚ barely shows the face of the suspect as he is seen looking away from the camera.

But‚ do you perhaps recognise this man?

CORRECTION: The Hawks have clarified initially incorrect information being issued about how a two-man gang clad in security uniform walked out of a Kuruman cash depot with R9 million on December 8.

The incident happened at Fidelity Security Company‚ not G4S as previously reported.

A Hawks official explained that the erroneous information came as a result of incorrect details being sent by the original investigating officer in the matter.

SBV Services‚ also named in the original report‚ said it was not involved in any way. It stated the perpetrators are believed to have cloned a Gauteng-based vehicle’s licence plate number belonging to another security company.

We regret the error.