In a resounding win for the good guys, four car theft suspects were sentenced to an accumulated 52 years jail time and ordered to pay R330,000 in fines after being found guilty of their crimes in court recently. The accused appeared to face charges against them after they were arrested by members of our Special Operations Team, Tracker SA and the Umhlali SAPS, who caught the suspects within 45 minutes of stealing a vehicle in Ballito earlier this year.
The four accused Thobelani Mhlongo, Wandile Nyamo, Londi Malaba and Thulasizwe Zikhali were sentenced to five years direct imprisonment for theft of a motor vehicle and an additional five years for being in possession of vehicle break-in implements – a total of 10 years each.
Malaba and Zikhali were further ordered to pay R15,000 each into the criminal assets recovery account.
Mhlongo and Nyamo, who were out on bail after being arrested by our teams in February this year, were further found guilty for theft of motor vehicles in the Pietermaritzburg area, where they had stolen two Toyota Hilux bakkies in August 2019. Both accused were found guilty and sentenced to 8 years direct imprisonment for two counts of theft of motor vehicles. In total both the accused were handed down 16 years jail time each, and were also ordered to pay R150,000 into the criminal assets recovery account.
Well done to all roleplayers involved for ensuring these criminals got their day in court.