The woman accused of pulling off a brazen R4m theft from an SBV depot in Midrand by strolling off with cash stuffed in refuse bags inside a trolley lived a modest life with friends for five months while police were searching for her.

Two weeks after Bathobile Mlangeni, 29, allegedly executed the audacious theft at Mall of Africa in July last year, she sought refuge in a three-roomed RDP house in the township of Buhle Park, near Germiston, under the pretext of being on the run from "an abusive boyfriend".  ..