Africa-Press – Lesotho. TWO elderly fellows who masqueraded as police officers were thrown behind bars this week. Phafoli Motemekoane, 70, and his friend, Thato Jeremia, 67, allegedly pretended to be police officers before robbing people.
The two appeared briefly before the magistrate in Mohale’s Hoek this week charged with fraud. They were granted M1 000 bail and surety of M5 000 each which they failed to pay and were remanded in custody.
The court heard that the two were swindling people saying they had arrested them for various fictitious crimes and demanded hefty amounts of bribes for their release.
Police spokesman Senior Superintendent Kabelo Halahala told a press conference on Tuesday that the two old men committed a series of frauds starting last year in Mohale’s Hoek until August 25, 2023 when they were nabbed.
“They were walking with an envelope containing newspapers cut to the size of banknotes,” S/Supt Halahala said.
“They were searching people and their packages saying they were looking for illegally possessed guns,” he said. S/Supt Halahala said the duo used to take people’s belongings saying they were under arrest, threatening to take them to the police station.
While on the way, they would tell their victims that they had dropped charges against them and returned their bags, only to discover later that they have been robbed of their cash.
In most cases, money in their wallets would have been replaced with newspaper cuttings. S/Supt Halahala said in May last year the two jointly swindled an elderly man of M6 000 at the Mohale’s Hoek bus stop. In that incident, Motemekoane pretended to be a police officer and robbed their victim of his money.
On one occasion in October 10 last year, he said Jeremia started a conversation about politics with another man and while they were talking Motemekoane approached and told them that he was arresting them because they were illegally discussing politics.
S/Supt Halahala said Motemekoane cunningly told them it was a criminal offence to talk about politics in Lesotho and therefore they were under arrest.
He said they robbed their victim of his M6 540 so that Motemekoane could drop the charges. S/Supt Halahala said in June last year, Jeremia started a conversation with a woman, talking about guns.
While they were in the middle of their conversation, Motemekoane appeared out of nowhere and threatened to arrest them because it was illegal to discuss guns.
The police said the woman asked for mercy and paid M4 000 to buy her freedom. In July this year, the police said the accused allegedly spiked a man’s drink and when he became intoxicated, they robbed him of M2 800. They are expected to appear again before the court this week.
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