Two foreign nationals sentenced for scamming SA Woman 650k

Two foreign national scammers, Serage Martin Lubenga [28] and Rhoda Mirembe [33], were sentenced to 20 years imprisonment each for defrauding a South African woman [39] of R650 000.

The victim met an African man who introduced himself as Martin. The two thereafter became friends. Going forward, the victim started to open up to Martin and shared some personal challenges, amongst others and financial problems.

Martin informed her that he knows a prophet who can assist her with her financial solutions.  The said accused [Martin] then introduced the victim to a prophet known as Alice [accused number 2] at that time. They then started to conduct prayers regularly.

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One day, the prophet came to the victim’s place driving a BMW. She offloaded a bag full of false notes purported to be money to the value of R4 million.

The Prophet told the victim that in order for her to get that money, she should raise 10 % of the R4 million and all this was covered by prayers from the alleged fake prophet Alice. The victim went all out and raised a total of R650 000, which was handed to them in trenches.

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At some point, the victim was also asked to bring her personal particulars consisting of bank statement, identity document [ID] copy, salary advise to pray for them in order for her to get a promotion at work which will boost her finances while awaiting the lump sum of R4 million.

Two foreign national scammers kept on milking money from the victim until she suspected criminal activities.

The Hawks investigation team worked around the clock and the accused were arrested at Potchefstroom in North West Province.

Intensive investigations of SCCI led them to confiscate four luxurious vehicles as proceed of crime, namely a Range Rover, 2 x Mercedes Benz and  a X6 BMW.