A 44-year-old man was on Friday sentenced to six years behind bars by the commercial crimes court in Gqeberha for fraud and the possession of cloned bank cards totalling more than R675,000.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) regional spokesperson Anelisa Ngcakani said Phalo Sixishe was convicted on 23 counts of possession of cloned cards and 170 counts of fraud.
Between July and November 2017, Sixishe obtained forged cards with electronic account information and confidential data.
Ngcakani said these were encoded on magnetic strips of credit fleet cards First National Bank issued to its clients.
She said it was still unclear where Sixishe had obtained the cloned cards he used to commit the fraudulent transactions.
In September 2017, Sixishe’s co-accused Edgar Duma became involved in the scam and subsequently pleaded guilty to 80 counts of fraud and 18 counts of possession of cloned cards.
Duma had participated in R361,452 worth of fraudulent transactions.
He was sentenced in October 2018 and is serving a six-year jail term.
Ngcakani said the pair had presented forged cards at petrol stations and shops in Makhanda, George, Gqeberha, Cape Town, Graaff-Reinet, Stutterheim, Aliwal North and Komani.
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