DURBAN: The Department of Employment and Labour has welcomed the arrest of a 39-year-old bookkeeper accused of swindling the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) Covid-19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (Ters) of R11.1 million.
The department said the bookkeeper was expected to make his first appearance in the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court in Gauteng on Tuesday.
He allegedly submitted Covid-19 Ters claims on behalf of four clients. They clients were not aware of this.
An amount of R11.1 million was allegedly paid into the suspect’s business accounts.
Musa Zondi, the acting spokesperson for the department, said the clients reported the matter to the police after finding out that their employees had not been paid.
“Following joint investigations between the UIF and the police, the suspect was traced and arrested in Durban on August 25.”
A luxury Audi Q2, suspected to be part of the proceeds of the crime, was seized.
Acting UIF commissioner advocate Mzie Yawa welcomed the arrest and commended law enforcement authorities.
"I hope the latest arrest sends a strong and clear message to other would-be fraudsters that the long arm of the law will catch up with you.
"Working together with law enforcement agencies, we will continue investigating every lead pointing us to suspected fraudulent activities, and we thank the public for being vigilant about abuse of Covid Ters funds.
“We cannot tolerate the siphoning off of workers’ benefits by unscrupulous individuals. All fraudsters are on notice, and we hope more of these suspects will be arrested and sent straight to jail.,"
Yawa said at least 17 suspects had been arrested and charged for allegedly fleecing the UIF’s Covid-19 Ters.
He said that almost R827m was recovered through the "follow the money" project and anticipated that more would be recovered as the project was extended for a further 12 months.
IOL