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- A 33-year-old man has been handed an eight-year sentence for theft.
- He was found to have posed as a traditional healer and stolen more than R730 000.
- He promised to multiply the money and return R5 million to the victim, the court heard.
A 33-year-old man has been sentenced to eight years' imprisonment after he was found to have stolen more than R730 000 from a KwaZulu-Natal pensioner.
Felix Tepi Atto posed as a traditional healer and promised to multiply the money.
He was sentenced in the Durban Regional Court after being found guilty of theft amounting to R738 500, stolen from a pensioner between 2018 and 2020.
"The convicted thief presented himself as a traditional healer to the victim and made him believe that he would multiply his pension money to the tune of R5 million. The victim handed him money for a period of two years, and when his money was depleted, he borrowed money from his former employer. He became suspicious when he did not receive the R5 million he was promised," said police spokesperson Constable Thenjiswa Ngcobo.
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The matter was reported to the police on 12 February 2020, and Atto was arrested in Durban on the same day.
He was denied bail and remained in custody until sentencing.
Three years of his sentence has been suspended on the condition that he is not found guilty of a similar offence during the period of suspension.
