Cape Town – The Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Bellville convicted and sentenced a bank card scammer earlier this week.
Lunga Bornside, 36, was convicted on 13 charges of fraud and contravening the Electronic Communications and Transaction Act (ECT) 25 of 2002.
According to Zinzi Hani, the provincial spokesperson for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks), Bornsode was arrested at the Cape Town International Airport in 2019.
This after members of the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team received a tip-off.
She said Bornside was granted R1 000 bail at his first court appearance, however, he was rearrested in November 2021 after a warrant of arrest was issued for his failure to appear in court.
He was remanded behind bars until his case was concluded.
Bornside pleaded guilty to all charges and entered into a plea agreement with the state.
The court sentenced him to six years’ imprisonment on the 13 charges of fraud, of which three years were suspended with conditions.
He was further sentenced to three years imprisonment for contravening the ECT Act linked to the card cloning scam. The court ordered the three years to be suspended for a period of five years.
Thus, Bornside will effectively serve three years behind bars.
IOL