Modise Jacob Rapholilo (48) was found guilty as charged by the Virginia Commercial Crime Court and sentenced to 15 years direct imprisonment for a charge of theft to the value of R2.1 million.
His conviction emanates from an incident which took place during January 2018, where he approached a farm owner, in a guise of being a representative of a government department. He misguided the farm owner victim by requesting him to release money for the sale of his farm to his personal bank account.
He convinced him that this would assist in releasing the lump sum of money due to the victim for the rent and the purchase of his farm. Consequently Rapholile received payment to the value of R2.1 million from the victim.
When the victim realised he had been conned, he reported the matter to the authorities. Rapholile was arrested by the Hawks Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team following an intense probe. He appeared in Virginia Commercial Crime Court on Thursday, 20 September 2018 and pleaded guilty on charges of theft.
He was sentenced to 15 years suspended sentence on condition that he pay the complainant an amount of R2.1 million that he stole from the victim before Sunday, 31 March 2019.
On Monday, 12 August 2019, the complainant reported to the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation that Modise Rapholile has not paid his money as per court order. Modise Rapholile was then arrested in January 2020 and appeared in court until his conviction and sentence on Thursday, 4 February 2021.
