The South African Police Service (SAPS) has withdrawn the case against a 26-year-old truck driver charged with allegedly placing fraudulent orders for goods, using the names of well-known companies.
According to SAPS colonel Adele Myburgh, the court hearing earlier this week revealed that he had merely been hired to drive the truck and was not involved in the placing of the fraudulent order.
He was arrested last week in Brits while loading a double trailer truck with goods valued at an estimated R250 000 after SAPS had received intelligence about a number of suspects operating at the industrial site.
Myburgh said that the same modus operandi had been used to allegedly defraud a company in Rosslyn where goods valued at R1.7 million had been involved while a similar case had been registered in Akasia recently.
“The possibility that there is a syndicate at work here definitely exists; we should never underestimate the criminals in our country,” she said. “The fact that there are already more than two similar incidents registered with SAPS means that it’s possible that there are more cases.”
She said that the investigation into these incidents was ongoing.