Card cloner pleads guilty

A 34-YEAR-OLD woman has been sentenced to a R40 000 fine or a year behind bars after she pleaded guilty to charges of contravening the Cybercrimes Act.

Yolanda Ngqukuva was busted by border police at OR Tambo International Airport in Kempton Park last month as she was in transit from Qatar to Cape Town.

The former Europcar employee at Cape Town International Airport was arrested and handed over to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks).

According to their investigation, it was alleged that Ngqukuva would supply the clients’ card information to a syndicate that manufactured cloned cards, ripping off the customers of over R400 000.

On Thursday, Ngqukuva appeared before the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Cape Town.

Western Cape provincial spokesperson for the Hawks, Lieutenant-Colonel Siyabulela Vukubi said Ngqukuva entered a plea and sentence deal with the prosecution.

He reported: “The accused entered into a Section 105A plea agreement and sentence. She was convicted and sentenced as follows - for contravention of the Cybercrimes Act, Act 19 of 2020, a fine of R40,000 or 12 months imprisonment.

“She was further sentenced to five years imprisonment which was wholly suspended for a period of five years.”