A KZN woman who stole from casino patrons while performing good luck rituals has been jailed for 15 years.
|||Durban - A woman was sentenced to 15 years in prison for fraud and theft by the Durban Regional Court on Friday.
Nancy Shanelle Naidoo pleaded guilty to 29 charges, which included fraud, robbery, and extortion.
She stole cash and jewellery from people while performing good luck rituals at a casino and victims' homes.
In a statement read by her lawyer Hycenth Mlotshwa, Naidoo admitted to drugging elderly people and robbing them of cash and jewellery.
"I visited the various complainants mentioned in the charge sheet at their homes and told them that I was a nurse employed at Addington Hospital and I was qualified to dispense medication," she said.
"I would then drug them with tablets and while they were drugged I would steal their jewellery, cash, and items mentioned in the charge sheet."
Two of her victims had to be taken to hospital as a result of being drugged.
In one case, a woman was robbed of jewellery valued at R700 000.
She convinced the woman that she would perform a cleansing ceremony for her son and granddaughter, as their lives were in danger.
The woman's daughter had died in a car accident and Naidoo pressured the woman into giving her jewellery so she could be cleansed of ill-luck.
She also took payments of R118 000 from the same woman.
Naidoo admitted asking her victims to give her jewellery so she could pray for them to have luck.
"While they were busy with something and distracted I then stole the jewellery and items mentioned in the charge sheet."
She committed the crimes between 2007 and 2012, robbing her victims of a total of R3.5 million. - Sapa