Double whammy for ‘P1.1 million fraudster’
Lebogang Mosikare | Tuesday April 25, 2023 06:00
According to the charge sheet, the fraudster, Morekolodi Moseki, 28, who is a sales agent at Bayport acted together with a common purpose with Michael Gabatshabe, 23, and Mauba Moreti, 32, to obtain money by false pretences.
They intended to defraud Bridget Thobolo of P269,000 by pretending to be capable of multiplying money when in actual fact and truth they knew that to be false. The accused allegedly committed the offence on February 3 in Francistown. Moseki is also facing two similar charges of allegedly obtaining P300,000 each from two more people.
Two more cases involving people who were each allegedly swindled out of P300,000 have since been registered against Moseki. This total amount of money he allegedly defrauded is P1.1 million. When delivering a ruling in the first case involving P269,000, Principal Magistrate Tshepo Magetse said Moseki was denied bail and a detailed ruling was delivered on March 20. “It has come to the attention of the instant court that on April 13, at the request of the prosecution, Moreti and Gabatshabe were granted bail by Magistrate Thabang Chokwe.
On April 20, two more counts of obtaining by false pretences were added to the charge sheet, meaning, of particular, Moseki who was initially charged with obtaining P269,000 by false pretences, has since been linked to a further similar two counts and in total his obtaining by false pretences charges are now valued at P803,000... Factoring that the first accused person’s bail was denied; he bears the onus to illustrate on a balance of probability why he deserves to be granted bail pending trial based on a change of circumstances,” Magetse said.
In a nutshell, Magetse continued, the defence attorney Senior Counsel Oratile Koonne argues that his client ought to be granted bail because the police had been given a month to investigate whereafter, as part of the balancing exercise, his client was guaranteed bail thereat. “It must be noted that it is true that factoring the amount involved in the initial charge, the investigators were afforded time to conduct their investigations undisturbed.
The court agrees with the defence counsel that indeed there has been a change of circumstance to his client’s advantage but I must also note that, at the same time to his detriment. Two more charges of a similar nature have since been laid. The value of these offences has since ballooned from P269,000 to P803,000. As if the above is not enough, another separate case of obtaining by false pretences has since been registered against the accused valued at P300,000 (CMMFT 159/23),” Magetse said.
He added: “Purely based on the above data, a reasonable person in the instance would be justified to conclude that the court should expect more obtained by false pretences linked to the first accused person. Would it be proper Administration of Justice (AoJ) to grant an accused person who keeps being linked to more similar offences bail? The answer is clearly not sending an accused person back to the community who continues to be linked to more cases of disregarding the law and or of similar offences would be irresponsible of the court. In fact, it would be 'dereliction of my duty...'” Magetse said: “The balancing exercise results are as follows: In light of the above, the application for bail pending trial is denied and due to the damning change of circumstances as noted above, his incarceration is now changed from pending investigations to pending finalisation of the case unless the trial is not afforded within a reasonable time per Section 10 of the Constitution. Parties are advised of their right to appeal to the High Court within 14 days.
The accused person is to be remanded till May 2.” When denying Moseki bail on the other count, Magetse prefaced his ruling by saying: “It is the responsibility of the judiciary, the conscience of this nation, to draw a line for those who demonstrate the likelihood that their release back into society on bail will endanger the safety of our fiscus and other members of our society. “In dismissing the instant bail application, again I quote from Judge Daniel Thulare when he says ‘the release of the appellant on bail would, in my view, seriously undermine and erode the confidence of the right thinking members of society in our criminal justice system and will cause questions to be asked about the legitimacy of our courts to speak justice’."