Cape Town – Six robbers targeting bank clients withdrawing large sums of money, were sentenced to a combined 843 years imprisonment by the Johannesburg High Court, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said.
NPA spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane said the accused, aged between 25 and 46, were convicted on 68 counts, including racketeering by managing and participating in an enterprise, robbery, murder, kidnapping, fraud, corruption, conspiracy, possession of illegal firearms and ammunition.
Phindi said the syndicate worked with “tellers” to identify and rob unsuspecting bank clients who had withdrawn large sums of cash.
“After obtaining information from syndicate members that observed clientele withdrawing money from the tellers (so-called spotters), they sent the descriptions of the victims to other team members to follow them to isolated areas or their homes so that they could be robbed of the money they had withdrawn and other belongings such as cellphones and wallets,” said Mjonondwane.
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The six operated in the North West, Gauteng and Limpopo dating back to 2011 and continued their criminal operation in Giyani between 2017 and 2018, before they were arrested, she said.
The group used the same modus operand to rob clients until 2018 when they were arrested in Giyani.
