Experian fraudster Karabo Phungula not in court for sentencing

Karabo Phungula, who was last year convicted of fraudulently obtaining the personal data of millions of South Africans, was on Friday not present before the Johannesburg specialised crimes court for his sentencing proceedings to begin. 

In October last year, the court found Phungula guilty of illegally acquiring personal and business data from data services firm Experian. 

The court issued a warrant for Phungula's arrest on March 1 after he failed to appear in court on three occasions for sentencing following his conviction. He was arrested last week and remanded in custody. 

His application to be released on bail was refused last week and he was sent to Johannesburg Prison for his next appearance on Friday. 

On Friday morning, however, prosecutor Phuti Matabane told the court he had made arrangements for everyone to be in court for sentencing proceedings to start. 

“This morning I have learnt from the court orderly that the accused is not before court. His name is not on the list of accused brought to court,” Matabane said. 

The court stood the matter down and asked the state to contact Johannesburg Prison officials to see if it was possible for Phungula to be brought to court later on Friday.

The court indicated it was ready to proceed with the sentencing and said it was not prepared to postpone the matter any further.

Phungula was arrested in September 2021 on charges of fraud and contravention of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act. 

His arrest was in connection with an incident in May 2020 when Experian handed over the data of more than 23-million people and nearly 800,000 businesses to Phungula, who impersonated a businessman who was authorised to have the information.  

Experian detected the breach on July 22 2020, more than 50 days after the data had already been transferred.  

The state submitted Phungula had planned to sell the data for more than R4m. 

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