Western Cape police arrested two people on Tuesday on charges of fraud for allegedly swindling thousands of retired pensioners of about R1.6m.
The pair also allegedly secured an additional R2m in loans linked to the scam.
“During the course of July, various retired SA National Defence Force members laid criminal complaints against a retired 'colonel' and his cohorts for fraudulently representing to the retired members that the Queen of England and the British Army made millions of dollars available as a pension payout to each such retired applicant,” police spokesperson Capt FC van Wyk said in a statement.
It is alleged that at least 40,000 retired members responded to the “colonel”, and as part of the application paid a R40 administration fee in the hopes of receiving the payout.
“Based on the envisaged pension payouts, the 'colonel' managed to further obtain loans, in excess of R2m, with the promise to repay the loan when the funds were cleared in SA.”
Investigations led to the arrest of the two suspects, aged 62 and 63, who are expected to appear in the Paarl magistrate’s court on Thursday.
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