Petrol attendant arrested at truck-stop for allegedly skimming cards, swiping cash
Almost half a million stolen in truck-stop card-cloning racket.
The Hawks’ Middelburg Serious Commercial Crimes Unit arrested a 34-year-old petrol attendant at his place of work yesterday, with the suspect found in possession of a card-skimming device allegedly used for a string of swipe-and-skim transactions.
Two banks picked up on the suspicious activity at the tuck-stop inn-fuel station.
The banks suspected that someone was cloning cards at the facility and notified the police.
The investigation was handed to the Hawks and it evident that cloned cards were used to con motorists using cash-cards for fuel transactions out of an estimated R469 000.
The Hawks arrested the identified suspect at the garage yesterday.
The cloning device was also found on him according to the hawks.
The suspect will appear in the Belfour Magistrates Court on Monday.
The investigation remains ongoing, which may lead to further arrests.
Mpumalanga Provincial Head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations, Major General Nico Grobler, commended the join effort by banks and the Hawks.
