Court to pass judgment in November on former bank employee's theft case

The specialised commercial crimes court sitting in Ga-Rankuwa on Thursday postponed the theft case of former Standard Bank employee Bongani Vincent Nkosi to November 22 for judgment. 

Nkosi, 37, who faces two counts of theft, was employed at the bank’s Mabopane branch. His duties included loading cash into six ATMs and taking out cash from deposits made by customers at those ATMs. 

It is alleged that on February 3 2017 the accused was required to load R630,000 into an ATM.

“Investigations revealed he loaded only R70,000. He took the balance of R560,000 for his own benefit,” National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson in North West Sivenathi Gunya said. 

He was arrested in July 2018 and was granted bail of R5,000.  

Specialised commercial crime unit head in the North West Bongani Chauke argued Nkosi’s defence of necessity and alleged threats put on him to commit the crime had no merit. 

Nkosi claimed he was accosted and kidnapped by unknown people who threatened to cause harm to him if he did not steal R1m from the bank and hand the money over to them.

“The accused said in his version he was kidnapped on February 2 2017. He was then released to go to his workplace on February 3 2017. That is when he decided to go ahead with the plan to steal R560,000,” Gunya said. 

Nkosi did not report the kidnapping to the bank or to the police. 

“The accused also elected not to testify in his defence,” Gunya said. 

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