An 18-year-old laaitie, who allegedly held up shop owners in New Horizons at gunpoint and demanded they pay protection money, has been sent to the mang.
Justin Anthony made his first appearance at the Wynberg Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday after he was busted by Grassy Park cops on Monday following reports that he had been terrorising Pakistani shop owners.
Cops say the young skollie took it upon himself to extort business owners and even rukked a gun on one of them when he was told there was no money in the winkel.
Grassy Park station commander, Colonel Dawood Laing, says on Saturday morning Anthony entered a store in Wagtail Road and demanded protection money from the owner.
“He is a teen who just started his own extortion racket by threatening shop owners,” says Laing.
“In the first case on Saturday, he walked into the shop on Saturday just after 9am and demanded protection money.
“When the owner said he did not have money, he became enraged and started throwing bricks at the fridges and broke all the windows. The damages came to R2000 and the owners opened a case of malicious damage to property case.”
Laing says on Monday another shop owner came to the police station and opened a case against Anthony.
“The second shop owner told the officers that the suspect came into his shop at 8.30pm on Sunday and also demanded protection money.
“However, he came with an accomplice and this time around he was in possession of a firearm and held the shop owner at gunpoint.
“When he was again told that there was no money to pay him, they stole biltong, sweets and entjies to the value of R2000.”
Laing says the shop owner knew where to find the suspect and the Crime Prevention Unit was dispatched and immediately arrested him.
“It is very concerning that these young skollies think they can just extort businesses and this is a trend by gangs across the Western Cape.
“We will not tolerate this in our precinct and call on business owners to report these skollies.”
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson, Eric Ntabazalila, says at this stage Anthony only faces aggravated robbery charges.
“Please note that the accused only appeared for aggravated business robbery and not for extortion yet.
“That matter of extortion is still under investigation. His case was postponed till 27 May 2022 for bail application,” he says.
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