Gabriel Okori, a citizen of Nigeria, was released on bail after he appeared before a Pretoria Magistrate’s Court under charges of fraud and theft.
The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, known as the Hawks, said he was brought before the Pretoria court shortly after being arrested in Cape Town on 15 October.
He has been granted R5,000 bail, and the matter is postponed to 16 January 2025. Gauteng Hawks spokesperson Warrant Officer Thatohatsi Mavimbela said.
The Hawks effectively arrested Okori with the help of the City of Cape Town’s law enforcement and a private security firm.
The Hawks in Gauteng said Okori was targeting a woman he met online.
The woman, whose name is withheld to shield her from guile, suspected the white man she was seeing was Mark Hermanus.
‘The complainant is saying she met a white male on Facebook named Mark Hermanus, exchanged cellphone numbers, and started communicating via instant messaging (WhatsApp),’ Mavimbela was quoted as saying.
As the pair were getting acquainted, ‘Mark Hermanus’ told the complainant that his son had gotten sick and that he needed the complainant to lend him money to pay his son’s medical bill.
The woman kept handing over money for him, as though for ‘Mark Hermanus,’ and the bill kept growing, well beyond R3 million.
He told her she would get it back when he paid off all his son’s medical bills. He never did pay her back.
The case was referred to the commercial severe crime investigation (unit) at the Hawks, and the suspect was arrested, traced, and identified as Gabriel Okori, a Nigerian national in Cape Town, on 3 October, said Mavimbela.
Okori appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court for the first time last Monday and for a second time this Monday.
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