Nearly one week after he gave police officers the slip during a search at his home, a bogus Facebook medical practitioner has been re-arrested.
IOL reported that Tshwane police launched a manhunt for a man using the names Dr Kingsley Chele or Dr KJ Ncube who allegedly duped women out of hundreds of thousands of rands.
According to police, Chele allegedly set up a Facebook page and administered medical advice, pretending to be a doctor or pharmacist.
He was arrested after two cases of fraud were registered at Sunnyside and Klipgat in June 2023.
Chele appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court, and he was remanded in custody after bail was denied.
SAPS spokesperson Colonel Mavela Masondo described Kingsley Leeto Chele as a Facebook con artist, who targeted women by misrepresenting himself as a doctor or pharmacist and scamming money from them for projects that did not exist.
“He went by the names Dr Kingsley Chele or Dr KJ Ncube,” he told TimesLIVE.
Masondo said Chele allegedly operated by contacting health professionals on Facebook, pretending to seek investors while he swindled them out of thousands.
Masondo said the investigating officer had called in the asset forfeiture unit last week to attach Chele’s property, believed to have been accumulated as proceeds of crime, including a 2023 VW Golf GTI.
“However, Chele managed to escape from custody when police were cataloguing his household items at his residence, and he has been on the run since then.”
It is not clear why Chele was with the police at the time.
TimesLIVE article – ‘Bogus’ doctor accused of scamming victims escapes from custody (Open access)
IOL – Bogus Facebook doctor re-arrested after dodging cops during home search
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Bail denied to bogus doctor charged with teen rape, sexual assault
HPCSA: Medics fined, suspended, and bogus doctors arrested
Queenstown bogus doctor and assistant charged with fraud and theft
Bogus doctor worked for month in Gauteng hospital