LYDENBURG – Yesterday a 50-year-old man appeared in court for allegedly defrauding a pharmacist in an attempt to obtain medication.
According to police spokesman Sgt Gerald Sedibe, Mr Thomas Nthombeni was arrested after he was caught at a local pharmacy with false medical prescriptions.
The police said it was not clear what medication it had been for.
Nthombeni appeared briefly in the Lydenburg Magistate’s Court on Monday on charges of fraud. Mpumalanga Hawks spokesman Capt Dineo Sekgotodi confirmed he was arrested on Friday for attempting to defraud a local chemist using a fake prescription.
“It is alleged the man visited the chemist on Thursday at around 11:00. He handed in a prescription for medication to the pharmacist,” she said.
According to Sekgotodi, when the pharmacist tried to capture the information onto the system, he realised that Nthombeni had received the same medication some days ago and was supposed to wait at least 10 days before he could come for the next lot, which was not the case.
“The pharmacist became suspicious and told the man to come and collect his medication the following day. The prescription was allegedly signed by a doctor from Rob Ferreira Hospital in Mbombela.”
Sekgotodi said the pharmacist decided to make some further enquiries at the hospital about the doctor. “He was told that the doctor had been suspended for the past three weeks.
“The pharmacist then notified the police about the incident and informed them that the suspect would visit his pharmacy again to collect the medication,” she added.
The man came back at 17:00 and was arrested. The police searched him and found four different prescriptions with different names but all had apparently been signed by the same doctor.
Nthombeni is allegedly a full-time shop steward of the Food and Allied Workers Union stationed at the Nelspruit Coca-Cola Depot.
The newspaper had not received comment from the company at the time of going to print.
Sedibe said the investigation was still underway.
