NPA tightens case against bogus doctor Chele

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has told the Pretoria magistrate’s court that it intends adding more charges against the bogus doctor Kingsley Chele.

Chele appeared in court on Monday on charges of fraud, car theft and escaping police custody unlawfully.

State prosecutor Madre Amorita Windvogel asked for the bail information, which includes among other things, confirmation of Chele's address, to be postponed.

She said she was still waiting for results from the Interpol to help with the verification of the accused.

“We will be adding more charges against the accused person and we cannot continue with bail information because we still await Interpol results,” she said.

Chele’s legal representative Adv Stephen Seelane told the court that the state had ample time to finalise the charges against his client.

“The state was too quick to arrest my client and now they are delaying the bail application, which is within my clients rights,” he said.

Chele kept rubbing his eyes and told magistrate Desiree Stigling that his spectacles had been stolen in prison.

Seelane said Chele had an eye infection and would need to be examined by an eye specialist.

He applied for Chele to be booked out of prison later this week to consult the specialist.  

Stigling granted it and postponed the matter to next week.

According to the police, Chele stole a total of R1.26m from his victims in Johannesburg and Pretoria, with R740,000 allegedly defrauded from the five people who opened cases last week. The largest amount he allegedly stole from an individual was R330,000.

Chele, who lived in Ruimsig, Roodepoort, has been posing as a doctor and using two South African ID documents, which both claim that he was born in 2006. Police said he started advertising his business of selling sick notes on social media in 2019.

He was arrested on October 2 after three cases of fraud were opened against him in Pretoria in June. He escaped from police custody on October 11 when police took him to his apartment to itemise his assets after the Asset Forfeiture Unit had seized the VW GTI Golf he had bought from the alleged proceeds of crime. 

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