Besides banks, casinos are the only other places that have lots of money on site and a Mthatha man employed at Mayfair Casino took advantage of that and stole from his employer. But he got caught.
Sinethemba Mdoda (26) and Yamkela Ndlala (29) defrauded the casino of R500 000.
Sinethemba was employed by Mayfair Casino when he and Yamkela committed the crimes. Both pleaded not guilty when the matter went to the Mthatha Specialised Commercial Crimes Court.
The court heard that they committed the fraud through the use of forged or cloned bank credit and debit cards.
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“On 15 February 2022,” the court head, “Sinethemba unlawfully transferred points from the casino to these cards and they converted the points to cash. On the previous day, he had accessed his manager's computer from where he transferred 500 points to the value of R10 million. He had intended to send them to his accomplice but sent the points to everyone in the casino's database. That was picked up and stopped immediately, leading to his arrest.”
The state alleged that the two men were members of a syndicate, but during trial they never divulged the identities of other people they worked with.
Vuyokazi Njongwe, a director at Mayfair Hotel says they became aware of the fraud because the checks and balances that the casino has.
“We then monitored the individuals in question hence they were then arrested.”
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Vuyokazi adds that as a casino, they do their best to ensure that everything is done according to the law because of strict gambling board regulations.
“Criminal record checks are done. A police clearance is one of the requirements and further stringent background, financial etc checking processes [are done]. The process with employing for casino goes further and deeper as the gambling board also does checks and will not just issue licenses. Everyone who gets employed by the casino has to be licensed by the gambling board.
“More procedures have been put in place to ensure various approval levels. We welcome the verdict and hope it sends a strong message to all would-be fraudsters that crime does not pay,” Vuyokazi adds.
