One person walked away from The Ridge Casino a very wealthy man, but his luck soon ran out when he was caught out and arrested.
Said Osmani from Boksburg was arrested on September 25, 2008 on charges of fraud after an investigation was done from the casino’s side.
Since 2008 the case has been an on going matter but prosecutor Friddah Tshwane was not going to let this case slide under the mat. Osmani pleaded not guilty in 2012 to all the counts of fraud.
Gambling machines at a worth of R520 000 were credited by Said Osmani. He was found guilty and sentenced to three years imprisonment suspended for a period of five years.
On Friday, October 21 Osmani appeared in Witbank Magistrates Court, where he was found guilty. Accounts one to 130 were taken into account together for the purpose of the sentence.
He was sentenced to three years imprisonment wholly suspended for a period of five years on condition that he is not convicted of fraud or any offence of dishonesty committed during the period of suspension.
He was further ordered to compensate The Ridge Casino of the amount of R238 048.65 by ways of monthly payments of R10 000 as from November 1 each and every month before the seventh of each month, until the full amount is repaid.
Osmani used to go to the machines and punch in a code and the machine would then credit him with R4 000. Sometimes he would play on the machines with the R4 000, spending approximately R400 and then cashing out the rest.
He did 130 transactions of R4 000 over a period of 17 days, defrauding the casino of a total of R520 000, he took a total of R476 097.30 home.
The court found that the accused unlawfully, falsely and with the intent to defraud gave out and pretended to The Ridge Casino and any of its employees and agents that he is participating in lawful gaming activates on the gaming slot machines by playing with credits that he obtained rightfully while using the gaming cards.
It was found that Osmani knew that he was exploiting a software malfunction, which resulted in a failure to deduct downloaded credits from his gaming card balance.
If an attempt was made to download more than R4 000 worth of credits from the said gaming cards to the said gaming slot machines the amounts were not deducted from the card balance and therefore not rightfully obtained and yet Osmani continued to play using the said credits, to the prejudice of The Ridge Casino. He continued to download the remainder of the credits not rightfully obtained back to his gaming cards.
“The casino is happy with the way the case has been handled and that it went through all the right procedures,” said Ms Sharika Betts, Marketing Manager from The Ridge Casino.
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