Court hears accused used Saunders’ bank card
The three people on trial for the murders of elderly botanists Rodney and Rachel Saunders have been pointed out at the Durban High Court as the customers who allegedly used the couple’s bank card in a Westville store.
Safydeen Del Vecchio, his common-law wife Fatima Patel, and Ahmad Jackson Mussa are accused of kidnapping, robbing and killing the couple in Vryheid five years ago.
A cashier on Tuesday testified that the trio bought R8 000 worth of items at Sportman’s Warehouse at Pavilion Mall a few days after the Saunders went missing.
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She testified that at the till, Mussa pulled out a gold FNB card and, instead of handing it to her, slid it straight into the card machine himself.
The woman told the court that as a cashier, she was required to check the names on bank cards.
She said the transaction went through but thought the name that appeared on the merchant slip did not match the man who’d just paid.
The trial heard the cashier looked up Dr Saunders online a few days later and phoned a contact number that the search brought up.
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A woman who answered told her it was not possible to speak to Saunders.
The cashier then told her about the purchases.
