CAUGHT BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE

CRIMINALS have popped the cork on other “criminals” trying to buy booze on the black market, fleecing several people of thousands of rand.

As many booze cabinets start running dry and South Africans wait for level 3 when alcohol can be bought again, several Verulam residents, keen on a tipple, this week lost thousands of rand to a man offering to help them buy liquor illegally… but then disappearing with the cash.

Prem Balram of Reaction Unit SA said the security company had responded to a number of call-outs this week after receiving reports that a man stole their cash without completing the transaction.

Balram said shoppers were approached by a man who lurked around bottle stores in the Kwazulunatal North Coast town’s CBD.

“He offers the victims a list of liquor, takes the order and their cash. He walks to the rear of a bottle store, pretending to buy the liquor, and disappears.”

He said the suspect had only been identified as Preolin.

He was about 1.8m tall, slender with an untidy appearance.

Balram later confirmed that the security company had located the man, but because no criminal cases had been registered as the sale of alcohol was a violation of the Disaster Management Act, the man had not been arrested.

“We asked the complainants to open a criminal case, but there’s a possibility that the complainants themselves can be arrested. They opted to resolve the matter between themselves,” he said.

Smokers, too, have been scammed: the Saturday Star’s sister paper, Daily News reported that smokers had been duped into buying empty packets of cigarettes in south Durban.

Community Crime Prevention Organisation spokesperson George Snodey said he was aware of two men and a woman who had bought empty cigarette boxes in a Checkers car park in Seadoone Road, emanzimtoti.

“You give them the money, they give you the cigarettes and walk away. When people open the packet, they find newspaper and plastic inside.”

He said he was aware of another incident where a man was robbed of R600 for a carton of cigarettes and the perpetrators fled.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, police raided a homestead in Dududu on the KZN South Coast where a group of men were allegedly making alcohol and decanting it into Smirnoff Vodka bottles.

National police spokesperson Brigadier Vish Naidoo said officers were informed of the “factory” in the area and the men fled when officers arrived. Police found 20 cases of sealed fake alcohol labelled as Smirnoff Vodka and hundreds of empty bottles waiting to be filled. There were also two drums of alcohol at the scene.