One of the ringleaders behind a SA Postbank scam and subsequent robberies, as well as another accused who was sentenced to hefty jail terms more than a decade ago, have turned to the SCA, where they maintain their innocence, reports the Cape Times.

Maxam Onasis, who had been the ringleader, was earlier convicted in the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) on 48 charges and sentenced to an effective 23 years' imprisonment, reports the Cape Times.

Bongani Nkosi, who was not a Post Office worker, was sentenced to an effective 20 years on 37 convictions, and both turned to the SCA.

In a judgment, penned by Judge Phillip Coppin, the SCA confirmed that there was a criminal enterprise behind the series of Post Office robberies. While the court did find in their favour on a few of the many charges, the effective sentences of both men remain the same.

The High Court earlier heard evidence that members of a syndicate carried out daring robberies at nine SA Post Office branches around Johannesburg, involving around R2m fraudulent activities. 

Consisting of mostly branch managers and tellers at Ekurhuleni and the East Rand post offices, the gang would clone IDs and use them to open savings accounts that were used to channel huge amounts of cash from Post Office coffers.

In June 2008, four accounts were credited with R80 000 each from the Boksburg North Post Office, while the fifth bogus account was credited with R20 000 on the same day.

On that day, a gang armed with knives and guns pounced on Post Office staff, holding them hostage by locking them in a safe after taking their cellphones and cash from their tills, reports the Cape Times.

Once staff members were out of sight, colleagues who were members of the syndicate would come in, take over the tills and manipulate the system to indicate that people whose names the accounts were opened in had deposited money into their Postbank accounts.

Syndicate members not employed by the Post Office would take IDs bearing their pictures but other people's details and approach Postbank to withdraw the money – ensuring tellers were members of the syndicates so their identities were not scrutinised.

The biggest transaction was made in July 2008, when syndicate members transferred R1.2m into five Postbank accounts in Pretoria.

The court concluded that evidence established the existence of a criminal enterprise responsible for looting the Post Office, and that apart from the few convictions now overturned by the SCA, Onasis and Nkosi were part of it.

Full Cape Times report