Gang of crooks posing as homebuyers wanted for numerous thefts across South Africa

A gang of suspected thieves posing as homebuyers, who are being linked to what is believed to be hundreds of cases across the country, have been arrested in Pretoria.

The members of the gang, including the alleged ringleader who is a 35-year-old woman, were nabbed in Nellmapius during the early hours of yesterday morning after police were tipped off by an informer on their whereabouts.

Villieria officers arrested the ringleader as well as the suspected getaway driver, a 30-year-old man.

During the raid police seized jewellery, laptop computers and other household electrical goods.

The gangsters, according to police sources, are wanted for numerous thefts across the country in cases where they posed as homebuyers.

Information given to the Pretoria News shows that the syndicate, which specifically targeted houses that were for sale, is wanted for theft throughout Pretoria, Johannesburg, Kimberly, Nelspruit and Tzaneen.

Among the Pretoria suburbs targeted by the gang were Villieria, where police are investigating 12 cases, Silverton, Wierdabrug and Sinoville. A case in Bronkhorstspruit is also being probed.

The modus operandi of the gang is similar to the one which claimed the life of Pretoria preschool principal, Rhinda Abraham, who was gunned down in her home a year ago.

Abraham's son Eric said he believed that his mother's killers had prior knowledge of their house, which was for sale at the time of the murder.

"Days before the shooting several 'potential buyers' came to our house while our family was out and were let in by our domestic worker, who we believe was conned into thinking that they were interested in buying the house. On the night of the shooting the killers knew exactly which neighbour's wall to climb over, exactly which doors to come through and where everything in the house was and what to ask for," he said.

Abraham's alleged killer, Mozambican national, Denis Gentil Nhone (37), who was arrested two days later, is to go on trial in the Pretoria High Court in August for her murder as well as several other cases.

One of the victims of the gang caught yesterday, Frikkie van Niekerk, has described how the smooth-talking gang conned his domestic worker into allowing them into his Queenswood home.

"The four well-dressed women told my domestic worker that they were interested in buying my house.

"When my domestic worker told them to return when I was home they told her a long story about how they had travelled from far and that one of them was pregnant and that they could not return.

"Believing them, my domestic worker let them into the house and, while showing one of them the garden, the others 'viewed' our house," said Van Niekerk.

It was while Van Niekerk's domestic worker was being distracted that the women's accomplices helped themselves to a camera, laptop computer and other valuables. When Van Niekerk arrived home he was greeted in Afrikaans by the "well-spoken" women who told him what a "lovely" house he had.

"I never suspected that they had just robbed me. I thought they were genuinely interested in buying my house," said Van Niekerk.

Only after a neighbour stopped and asked him if he had been robbed, did Van Niekerk think something was amiss.

"When my neighbour, who is also selling his house, said he had discovered that things were stolen from his home after the same women had come to view his house, I immediately became suspicious. When I walked through the bedrooms I saw that the cupboards had been opened and things were missing," he said.

Van Niekerk said: "They looked like good upstanding citizens, not a gang of crooks."

Police spokesperson Inspector Klaas van der Kooi confirmed the gang allegedly targeted houses that were for sale.

One of the women would keep the homeowner distracted while her accomplices stole valuables such as cellphones, laptop computers, cameras and jewellery.

"So far we have linked the two suspects to 12 cases in Villieria. We are in the process of linking them to other cases throughout Pretoria, including Silverton, Sinoville and Wierdabrug, as well as Johannesburg, Kimberly, Tzaneen, Nelspruit and Bronkhorstspruit.

Related article: Estate agents take stand against crime