Ravenda Singh, 50, and his son Andrew, 26, directors of a Durban based call-centre, Sub User, were nabbed on Wednesday last week in Joburg. “The duo handed themselves in at the Hawks’ serious commercial crime investigation in Johannesburg and were subsequently charged with fraud. On the same day, the pair appeared in the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crimes Court and were each granted R30 000 bail,” said Hawks Gauteng spokesperson Captain Ndivhuwo Mulamu. She said the suspects were linked through a forensic investigation carried out by the banks, which discovered undue debit orders through the suspects’ call-centre companies.
“The accused allegedly created fraudulent bank payment system to collect debit orders for call centres which resulted in unauthorised debit orders. Numerous clients from several banks countrywide, reportedly lost their hard earned cash through the R99 debit order withdrawn fraudulently between November 2018 and February 2019,” Mulamu said. The case against the Singh father and son was postponed to May 27, where they will be joining their co-accused, Jason Foster, 39, and Richard Marsden, 51. Foster and Marsden previously appeared in court and were released on R30 000 and R100 000 bail respectively.
Foster was arrested in February at the OR Tambo International Airport. Marsden’s apprehension was effected in October last year at the Cape Town International Airport. Foster and Marsden are also directors of the Durban based call-centre companies, Blue Debit and Talent Base. “The Hawks investigation revealed that the syndicate siphoned approximately R248 million from unsuspecting bank clients and transferred into different bank accounts allegedly linked to the syndicate,” Mulamu said.
Gauteng provincial head of the Hawks, Major General Ebrahim Kadwa commended the investigation team for apprehending the additional suspects. “We sincerely sympathise with all the bank clients who became victims of the alleged fraudsters. We are also pleased that perpetrators are brought to book to account for their fraudulent activities,” he said. “Communities are urged to report all suspicious criminal activities to authorities for further probing”.
