A 31-year-old Pretoria man was sentenced to 22 years in jail for fraud, property and identity theft, when he appeared in the Kempton Park Magistrates Court, on Thursday.
Brig Hangwani Mulaudzi, national police spokesman, welcomed the conviction and subsequent hefty sentence handed down to Perfect Ngonyama.
Ngonyama was found guilty of three counts of fraud, two counts of car theft, three counts of possession of identity documents belonging to other people and three counts of defeating the ends of justice.
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“Ngonyama’s arrest and sentencing was made possible by the hard work put in by members of the South African Police Service’s task team, based at OR Tambo International Airport, who first arrested him last year for the theft of a rented vehicle belonging to a company based at the airport,” Mulaudzi said.
He claimed he was robbed of the vehicle and opened a false case at the Tembisa SAPS, something that was soon found to be false.
At the time of the arrest he was found to be in possession of identity documents, driver’s licences and a hospital pathology bag.
Further investigations into how he came to possess all these documents led the police to uncover his other crimes. Confronted with evidence, Ngonyama pleaded guilty to all charges brought against him.
The acting national commissioner of the police, Lieut-Gen Kgomotso Phahlane, has congratulated the team on their determination and commitment.
