Waitress fined for card cloning device
A former waitress in a restaurant at the Tyger Valley shopping centre was fined R5 000 for the illegal possession of a device that clones bank cards.
|||Cape Town - A former waitress in a restaurant at the Tyger Valley shopping centre was fined R5 000 or six months in prison on Thursday, for the illegal possession of a device that clones bank cards.
Thandiwe Ncube, 36, appeared in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court, in Bellville, before magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg.
She pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit fraud, and a violation of the Electronics Communications and Transactions Act.
The fine was for the contravention of the electronics legislation, and for the conspiracy she received a five-year suspended prison sentence.
The matter took the form of a plea bargain, negotiated by the defence with prosecutor Simone Liedeman.
The magistrate said the suspended prison sentence gave Ncube an opportunity to stay out of prison, and she hoped Ncube would make use of it.
She said ordinary people went to restaurants to relax and enjoy a meal, and needed to trust the waiters with their bank cards.
She said Ncube was the mother of a small child and, instead of setting a good example to the child, she now had a criminal record.
The magistrate assured Ncube that her innocent child would one day find out about her mother’s criminal record, and would suffer as a consequence.
She warned Ncube not to “follow that route again”.
African News Agency
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