A 40-year-old man was arrested in Sunnyside on Friday afternoon in connection with more than 50 fraud cases after he had been evading police for almost 10 years, Pretoria police said.
Captain Piletje Sebola said the man had been ”in and out of police custody for the past 10 years”.
He said the times the man had been arrested, he had managed to ”sweet talk” his way out of police custody. In several instances dockets allegedly also went missing.
The man also has seven civil cases pending against him.
Sebola said he apparently rented houses and failed to pay the rent. It would then be too costly for the property owners to pursue the matterand he would move on to the next place.
He also claimed that he had befriended several prominent officers in the SA Police Service and posed as a member of the SA Union of Journalists and a print media journalist.
The man also allegedly went into shops and spoke to the manager about an item he was supposed to have obtained from the shop.
He would then approach the cashiers to exchange the item. They would not question him, having seen him talking to the shop manager.
Sebola said it would be difficult to quote figures of how much money was involved because some of the incidents had taken place outside Pretoria.
Sebola said possible corruption would also be investigated against Pretoria policemen who had previously investigated the man.
The investigating team would discuss all the cases with the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions to ask for all the dockets to be transferred to them for further investigation.
Sebola said consequent to claims that the police were not doing their job properly regarding the investigations into this man, a warrant for his arrest was issued. Detectives from Brooklyn police station and the Pretoria Dog Unit arrested him at his flat around 5pm on Friday.
The man was expected to appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Monday. – Sapa