Durban – Next month in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court a second accused is expected to join a 26-year-old e-hailing driver who remains behind bars after he was denied bail in his matter relating to an armed robbery of a jewellery store.
In September the Daily News reported that Wonderboy Ngema charged with robbery with aggravating circumstances was denied bail for the NWJ jewellery store robbery, in the second week of February Ngema will be joined by a second accused, Norman Dimba.
It is alleged that on June 30 last year, the complainant was at her place of work at NWJ Jewellery store in Westwood Mall and was working as a sales consultant.
When she noticed six unknown males entering the store, they all had on masks and were armed with guns.
It is alleged that the men held the two staff at gunpoint and began removing jewellery from the shelves and also broke the display cabinets and removed all the jewellery and forced one of the staff to open up the safe and took voucher cards, they fled from the store.
It’s alleged that the suspects used three vehicles to flee from the mall parking and the vehicles were captured on CCTV cameras.
On that day police noticed the vehicles travelling at a high speed along the M13 and began chasing the motor vehicles and the suspects began shooting at the police members. The one motor vehicle which is a Hyundai Accent, grey in colour was recovered abandoned in the KwaDabeka area and it was established that this vehicle was a hired car.
The owner of the car hire company was contacted and he went to the police and furnished them with a copy of the ID document and the driver's license and a copy of a bank statement of the person who had hired the motor vehicle.
The State alleges that these copies belonged to Wonderboy Ngema, police then proceeded to the address on the bank statement in Newlands East however they could not find Ngema.
On Tuesday July 12, members from the Phoenix Trio Crimes Unit received information that Ngema was travelling in a white Toyota Avanza along Nandi Drive and they acted on the information and apprehended him.
On Monday Dimba appeared in court where his matter was adjourned to later in February where he was expected to make his formal bail application.
According to a list of items stolen from the store in the charge sheet, the estimated value was over R500 000, the most expensive being a white gold diamond bracelet costing nearly R42 000.
Daily News