A British citizen working as a radio DJ in Taiwan conned three accommodation establishments during a short holiday in Cape Town, cheated a jeweller and a cellphone business, and ended his spree trying to take the police for a ride as well.
This was heard in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, where Jonathan Duncan (26) pleaded guilty to six counts of fraud before magistrate Ingrid Freitag.
His holiday ended with a fine of R18 000 or three years in jail on six counts of credit-card fraud. Freitag conditionally suspended the entire sentence because she did not want Duncan doing time in prison at the expense of the South African taxpayer.
Earlier, lawyer Tilly Terblanche told the court Duncan’s friend in Taiwan had given him the numbers of several stolen credit cards (not the cards), and Duncan had used these numbers in his crime spree that started in August last year.
Duncan’s first victim had been a jeweller at the V&A Waterfront, where he bought a gold ring for R10 000. In August, he fraudulently bought four cellphones for a total of R21 800, and in October he fraudulently ran up an accommodation bill for R8 500 at the Green Elephant Backpackers in Observatory, near Cape Town.
After this, Duncan used an accommodation agency to book fraudulently into the Stonehurst Guesthouse, in Sea Point, for 17 days. However, due to a fallout with the proprietor at Stonehurst, Duncan cancelled the booking and then fraudulently ran up a R10 000 bill at the Hotel Fairways on The Bay.
Duncan’s spree ended with his arrest on October 11, when he was held at the Camps Bay police cells. During his arrest, police confiscated R700 from Duncan, and entered the confiscation in a register.
Terblanche said Duncan secretly changed the R700 entry to R1 900, to cheat the police out of R1 200.
He also said Duncan had merely been a ”runner” for his friend in Taiwan, who had expected ”returns” from Duncan for the credit-card numbers.
Freitag said Duncan was intelligent, with a good job, but had abused South African hospitality. She added: ”I hope to never see you again in this court.” — Sapa