Police in South Africa have launched a manhunt for an escaped suspect accused of pretending to be a doctor.
Kingsley Leeto Chele “is a Facebook con artist who targeted women by misrepresenting himself as a doctor or a pharmacist and scamming them of their hard-earned money”, the police said.
He also goes by the names Dr Kingsley Chele or Dr KJ Ncube.
Chele is accused of having told health professionals on Facebook that he was seeking investors, before he “swindled them out of thousands of rands for projects that did not exist”.
He was arrested on 2 October after cases of fraud were reported in June.
A court in the capital Pretoria denied him bail and he was remanded pending his appearance, which had been scheduled for this Tuesday.
READ MORE:
LASG Unveils Traffic Diversion Plan for Opebi Link Bridge
NDLEA Seizes $4.8m, CFA57m Suspected Fake Currencies on Lokoja-Abuja Highway
Police, DSS Operatives Seal PDP State Secretariat in Ondo
He escaped last Wednesday “when the police were cataloging his household items at his residence, and he has been on the run since,” the police said in a statement.
The police have asked anyone with information about his whereabouts to get in touch.
It comes barely a week after a TikTok content creater was accused by health authorities in South Africa of impersonating a medical doctor.
The man, who goes by Dr Matthew Lani appeared on the app wearing scrubs in a public hospital, giving medical advice via his TikTok account. BBC