One of the ringleaders behind a South African Post Bank scam, which targeted clients’ bank accounts, turned to the Supreme Court of Appeal to appeal against the fact that he was twice convicted under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (Poca), based on the same facts.

He is also appealing against his 40-year imprisonment, which he says is shockingly harsh.

In 2015, the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, sentenced nine fraudsters involved in the scam to an effective 1,680 years combined for defrauding the Post Bank, forgery and uttering, money laundering, and stealing from unsuspecting persons’ accounts, as well as racketeering.

Isaac Dithlakanyane, an enterprise owner and one of the main characters behind the scam, was sentenced to 50 years in jail. This was later reduced on appeal before the high court to 40 years behind bars.

He colluded with eight Post Bank employees to open fraudulent accounts and deposit fraudulent pension pay-outs and stolen cheques. Dithlakanyane stole an amount of R2.2 million from the Post Bank, and he was convicted on 76 counts.

Dithlakanyane turned to the SCA in a bid to have one of his convictions under Poca set aside, as he said the second conviction under this Act is based on the same set of facts and evidence, and it amounts to a splitting of convictions.

He earlier received a sentence of 30 years in jail for the Poca conviction, which he now says is a duplicate charge. 

Dithlakanyane submitted that it was not only in the interests of justice for him, but for the prosecution and society at large for the appeal to be considered on this narrow question of law.

The trial court earlier heard evidence that Dithlakanyane was part of a criminal enterprise which focused on looting the South African Post Bank. Corrupt Post Office employees were used as “agents” who would identify bank accounts from which the members of the criminal enterprise could steal.

Once they had identified the accounts with a sufficient credit balance, they would forward the information to Dithlakanyane. He then procured various documents, such as forged identification documents.

A “runner” was then chosen, who was prepared to falsely claim to be the account holder of the targeted account. The runner would then present the false documents to the Post Office Bank with demands for monies from genuine accounts.

The evidence led during the trial showed that Dithlakanyane managed the criminal enterprise which preyed upon account holders.

The SCA said it was clear from the evidence that Dithlakanyane was closely linked in time and place to the fraudulent transactions.

However, the court found that he cannot be convicted on two Poca charges, based on the same evidence. The SCA subsequently overturned the first Poca conviction for which he had received 30 years.

But, the SCA said, the sentence of 20 years imprisonment imposed by the trial court and reduced by 10 years by the full court on the other Poca conviction is startlingly inappropriate and inadequate for an offence as serious as this, which the legislature ordained to be punished with life imprisonment.

“If this court does not interfere with this sentence, the administration of justice could be brought into disrepute. This sentence is contrary to the objectives of Poca to appropriately punish those who participate in organised economic crimes, within the prescribed sentences ordained by the legislature,” the SCA said.

It overturned the 10-year sentence on this charge and replaced it with 30 – which is the effective sentence Dithlakanyane will now have to serve.

zelda.venter@inl.co.za

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