A South African national who is facing a series of fraud charges amounting to over M16 000 is expected to return to the Maseru Magistrate’s Court on January 31 to stand trial.

David Gibbons, 40, of Bloemfontein, in the Free State, made his maiden appearance in the same court on January 3 and was remanded in custody as the prosecution suspected he was a flight risk.

He briefly appeared in court on Monday this week but his case was postponed pending further police investigations.

Evidence before the court shows that earlier this month, Gibbons who is a white South African man asked a Ha Matala woman for a short-term loan worth M2 500, saying he had quarreled with his wife and she took his bank cards, hence, he was unable to immediately access his money.

The 39-year-old victim was, however, only able to raise M1 500, which she gave to the accused.

It is alleged that Gibbons later returned to the victim and showed her a bank statement that indicated that he had deposited M8 000 into her account.

The court heard how Gibbons instructed the woman to withdraw all the deposited cash, keep her share, and hand over the balance to him.

But the victim suspected foul play when she did not receive any notification message of the said deposit on her mobile phone.

Another victim who came forward claims that Gibbons swindled M10 600 out of her.

The woman says Gibbons claimed to be divorcing his wife and wanted to deposit M185 000 into her account to hide it from his wife.