Woman caught with stolen cellphone

Sea Point police arrested five people from Johannesburg, aged between 22 and 44, on fraud charges, during a stop-and-search operation on Main Road, Green Point, last week Thursday.

Captain Elizabeth Munro, spokesperson for Sea Point police station, said officers pulled over a Toyota Avanza with a yellow number plate, with five passengers.

The female passenger’s handbag was searched and a brand-new, sealed Samsung Galaxy S8 cellphone was found inside.

“The woman looked nervous and could not produce a receipt of the cellphone, which led the police to ask the woman further questions.”

Police accompanied the woman and four men to the Waterfront Suites, Sea Point, where they were staying. Their room was searched and police found a bag containing eleven South African identity documents belonging to the five suspects, with different identification details, and fraudulent pay slips, bank statements and proof of addresses.

“Further investigation led detectives to Telkom and Table Bay Mall in Table View, where they discovered that falsified documents were used to obtain a cellphone contract.

The criminal profiles of four men were obtained, and it was discovered that they are all wanted suspects at various police stations on fraud cases, and that they all have previous convictions for fraud,” said Captain Munro.

The suspects appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Monday October 23 where bail was opposed.

Meanwhile, on Sunday October 22, Cape Town Central police made an arrest for an attempted car-breaking.

Captain Ezra October, spokesperson for Cape Town Central police station, said that at 12.45am, Cape Town Central Improvement District (CCID) supervisors received information that a car was being broken into in the Buitengracht centre island at Church Street.

The CCID officers caught one man after he was identified by two informal car parkers who saw the attempted break in but the second man managed to escape.