Bogus doctor allegedly dupes victims out of R1.8m

A BOGUS medical doctor who allegedly duped unsuspecting victims into advancing him huge sums of money, appeared in the Goodwood Regional Court yesterday.

Abri Gert Kruger, 35, appeared before magistrate Constance Nziweni who, at the request of prosecutor Thersia du Toit-Smit, postponed the case to January 25 for trial.

One of Kruger’s alleged victims was Ronel de Jager, the senior prosecutor in the Bellville Regional Court.

Du Toit-Smit told the court that the investigation, involving R1.8 million, was ongoing, and so far involved six dockets.

The dockets related to a case in Paarl involving R991 000, three cases in Goodwood amounting to R521 000, one in Durbanville for R158 000 and one in Bellville for R200 000.

Kruger will face six counts of fraud perpetrated between 2010 and 2014.

The State alleges that, while out on R10 000 bail on unrelated fraud charges, Kruger duped victims into advancing to him huge sums of money. The fact that Kruger allegedly perpetrated fraud on such a large scale, while out on bail in another fraud matter, made the current fraud charges a Schedule 5 case.

This means that, if found guilty, he faced a minimum sentence of 15 years, the prosecutor said.

It’s alleged that Kruger told his victims that he was a medical practitioner from a medical school in the UK.

He allegedly assured his victims that loans madewould be repaid as soon as he received a large sum from the HSBC bank in the UK.

In March, Kruger was refused bail in the Goodwood District Court. However, he was released on R40 000 when he took his application to the Western Cape High Court on appeal. – ANA