A 34-year-old woman, who was arrested last week while disembarking from a flight at OR Tambo International Airport in Kempton Park, was transferred to Cape Town, where she pleaded guilty to charges of contravening the Cybercrimes Act.
IOL reported last week that border police at the busy airport intercepted the woman, Yolanda Ngqukuva, when she landed on a flight from Qatar.
On Thursday, Ngqukuva appeared before the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Cape Town.
Western Cape provincial spokesperson for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (known as the Hawks), Lieutenant Colonel Siyabulela Vukubi said Ngqukuva entered a plea and sentence deal with the prosecution.
“The accused entered into a Section 105A plea agreement and sentence. She was convicted and sentenced as follows - for contravention of the Cybercrimes Act, Act 19 of 2020, a fine of R40,000 or 12 months imprisonment.
“She was further sentenced to five years imprisonment which was wholly suspended for a period of five years.”
Effectively, the court ordered Ngqukuva to pay a fine of R40,000 or face one-year direct imprisonment.
“Ngqukuva was arrested by SAPS border police at OR Tambo International Airport while returning on a Qatar flight on January 21, 2025,” said Vukubi.
“She was allegedly involved in compromising the clients' card information while she was employed at Europcar, Cape Town International Airport. This occurred from 2017 until 2018 while they (clients) entered into rental agreements.”
The Hawks said Ngqukuva would supply the card information to a syndicate that manufactured cloned cards, ripping off the customers.
In December, IOL reported that police in North West province warned community members to be cautious when using their bank cards for payment.
The warning was issued after two suspects, aged 52 and 56, were arrested in two incidents in Potchefstroom.
In one of the incidents, members of the Potchefstroom Crime Prevention were on patrol around the town when they received information to look out for a suspicious Mini Cooper vehicle.
“The vehicle was spotted driving on the Dr James Moroka Avenue and members pulled it over. Upon conducting a search on the vehicle and driver, police found numerous bank cards hidden in the driver’s underwear and he could not give a satisfactory account of those cards,” said North West provincial police spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Sam Tselanyane.