Dating-site conman who took R6m from two victims walks out after three years

A 52-year-old man who used fake profiles on dating sites to draw R6 035 500 out of two people will serve an effective three years in prison, after the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crimes Court sentenced him on 28 October 2026 on fraud and money laundering counts.

Pius Emokpe entered into a plea agreement with the state. According to the South African Police Service statement on the case, he was convicted and sentenced as follows: on counts 1 to 106 and 109 to 145, fraud, ten years imprisonment of which seven years were suspended. On count 107, money laundering, three years imprisonment. On count 108, contravention of the Riotous Assemblies Act, the charge was withdrawn.

The four and a half years Emokpe had already spent in custody were taken into consideration, leaving him with three years to serve.

The police account is that between June 2021 and February 2022 he solicited the R6 035 500 from two victims, asking them for financial assistance and assuring them he would repay the money out of projects that did not exist. The debts were never repaid.

When Emokpe was arrested in May 2022, police established that he was also wanted in five other cases investigated by the SAPS Western Cape Provincial Commercial Crime Unit, with a financial loss recorded at R779 500.

The statement was issued by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, the Hawks, in the Western Cape. It is a police summary of the sentencing rather than the court record itself, and the finer detail of the plea agreement and the court’s reasoning is not set out in it.

The case sits in a long line of commercial crime work in the Western Cape, where frauds run through dating platforms, false projects and promises of repayment land in the specialised commercial crimes court. For the two victims in this matter, the sentence closes a case that began with money handed over more than four years ago. What the record does not say is whether any of the R6 035 500 has been recovered.

The statement carries the contact details of Lieutenant Colonel Siyabulela Vukubi for enquiries. The full SAPS media statement is available at https://www.saps.gov.za/newsroom/msspeechdetail.php?nid=72148.