Woman impersonates another to defraud BBS

Sharon Mathala | Wednesday February 12, 2014 19:52

Thekeletso is accused of having defrauded BBS on January 22, 2010  by pretending to be the owner of the said account. Presiding over the case is Magistrate Monash Ndlovu.

When giving his account of what transpired, security manager at BBS Bob Ofentse Lekang explained to the court that Gabana came to their offices to enquire about money that was mysteriously withdrawn from her account. He further mentioned that he then went through the records to see if Gabana’s claims were in fact true.

“When I went through the records, and it became evident that the person who made the transaction had used a passport as a form of identification. The information in the passport copy were different from that in Gabana’s identity card,” said Lekang.

The court also learnt that at BBS when a customer requests for more than P10,000, they are issued a cheque that is only cashable at Barclays, and in this case the cheque was cashed at the Lobatse branch.

Lekang further mentioned that the records showed that the withdrawer used an affidavit from the police indicating she had lost her National Identity card.

“The CCTV footage from the bank also showed a woman who does not fit the description of Gabana, the woman from the footage was buffer than Gabana.

I also noticed that her movements in the bank were dubious because most times she would try to cover her face to block it from the cameras with the scarf she had on. This made me even more curious on the matter,” explained Lekang.

Lekang further explained to the court that the signatures were different from that of Gabana.

“I am not a handwriting expert, but with the little knowledge I acquired when working for the DCEC as an investigator, I was given the basics and I could tell that the signatures did not match. That is when I alerted the police about the case,” said Lekang.The prosecutor, Oagile Bolane opted to show the court the video footage from the Barclays Bank branch in Lobatse but cables to connect the projector were unavailable at the time. The case will resume on March 11.