Durban - Former police spokesman Vincent Mdunge will know his fate in February once police have explained to the Durban Magistrate's Court how they determined the amount of his fraud.
It had been expected that magistrate Thandeka Fikeni would sentence Mdunge on Wednesday.
Prosecutor Barend Groen told the court before sentencing that the State had determined Mdunge had received R874 901 in salary he was not entitled to. This was the difference between his salary as a colonel and that of a warrant officer.
However, Saleem Khan, for Mdunge, argued his client believed he had not received this amount and that it did not take into account the tax that had been deducted.
Fikeni ordered that Colonel Nico Kleynhans, the section head of the police's salary maintenance section, explain to the court how the amount was determined.
She postponed the sentencing to February 17.
In November, Fikeni ruled the matric certificate he presented when joining the force in 1987 was not valid.
The court heard that Mdunge failed matric in 1985, and when he wrote supplementary exams in 1986.
The certificate he presented had been tampered with and contained an examination number from when Mdunge was in grade eight.
Fikeni acquitted him of one count of fraud, saying it had not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Mdunge misrepresented himself when he joined the police as a special constable.
Mdunge was convicted of a count of fraud for receiving a salary to which he was not entitled. The highest rank a police officer can achieve in the police without a matric certificate is warrant officer. Mdunge had reached the rank of colonel.
Mdunge was found guilty of fraud for submitting his forged matric certificate to the University of SA to obtain admission to a National Diploma in Police Administration.
Earlier on Wednesday morning Khan argued his client should receive only a wholly suspended sentence as Mdunge's “service was rendered in an exemplary manner”.
He said the State had already started to punish Mdunge when police withheld payment of his R4.2 million pension when he resigned in September 2013.
Groen argued that withholding the pension had nothing to do with the case or sentencing.
“The accused has had 27 years to rethink his fraud. He didn't. He carried on and on being promoted,” he said.
He said the community was outraged by the increasing occurrence of forged qualifications. - Sapa