FOLLOWING the alleged hit on a Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) engineer in La Lucia last Wednesday, the Durban North CPF has issued a statement allaying fears about an increase in crime in the area.

Jacob Khoaele was gunned down on Shelbourne Avenue and was the second murder in the area following the murder of local businessman Shailen Singh (32) in December.

In that incident, Singh was gunned down while seated in his vehicle on Meridian Drive.

Public relations officer Darryl Oliver said both murders had the ‘markings of premeditated, targeted attacks’.

Also read: Durban North CPF warns of ‘warrant of arrest’ scam

“They were not as a result of crimes gone wrong or escalating in the area. Without diminishing the severity of the two crimes, we would like to allay fears and concerns of residents of an increase in violent crime, as this is simply not the case.

“Crime stats for the last quarter indicate an overall decrease in contact crime (crimes against the person) and other crimes such as household, business robbery and common robbery, with our only growing concern being fraud with the Durban North police station averaging 20 cases a week,” he said.

Oliver was referring to the vishing scam, which refers to fraudsters using phone calls that trick victims into providing personal information, like passwords or bank details.

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