Convicted fraudster Visham Panday, who has been on the run since February, has been nabbed by the Pietermaritzburg Hawks. Panday, 32, was first arrested in December after allegedly posing as a Dr Calvin Naidoo in 2009, promising a woman a lucrative job with his company in the US and persuading her to invest her life savings of about R450 000 in a business. The woman received no returns and opened a fraud case.
On Wednesday, Brigadier Keith Flack, the acting provincial commander overseeing the organised crime unit, said Panday was arrested at about 10am by officers who had been searching for him since he absconded from court in February this year. Flack said Panday was being detained at the Durban Central police cells and would appear in court on Thursday.
Panday was granted bail of R25 000 in the Durban Magistrate’s Court for the fraud charge in December last year, but was arrested on the day of his release for assaulting his girlfriend, Vanishree Naidoo. The State then revoked his bail, pending an inquiry into whether he had breached his bail conditions by leaving Durban without permission and by assaulting a State witness. During the inquiry in January, the investigating officer, Warrant Officer Stephen Gouws, testified he feared Panday would abscond if his bail was reinstated. However, magistrate Anita Govender ruled in Panday’s favour and reinstated his bail. She found that he had not breached his bail conditions, as the court’s jurisdiction had not been explained to him. Govender also chastised the State for failing to disclose the facts relating to his previous conviction during his bail application, saying that this was pertinent information. It was after this inquiry, when his bail was reinstated, that he absconded.
Meanwhile, a Phoenix doctor and seven others were arrested on Wednesday in connection with a life insurance scam. Colonel Vincent Mdunge of the SAPS said the doctor and funeral parlour owners had signed death certificate documents in 2010 that allowed a woman to claim R500 000 from 1lifedirect insurance company when no death had occurred.
Source: IoL
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