CAPE TOWN - A former broker and convicted fraudster was granted R5,000 bail in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday.
In a statement, Captain Yolisa Mgolodela, provincial spokesperson for the Hawks, confirmed that Stephanus Johannes Janse van Rensburg, 69, had been granted bail.
According to Mgolodela, the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigating team arrested Janse van Rensburg in connection with insurance fraud worth R1.8m which emanated from 15 payments.
She said Janse van Rensburg handed himself over on Monday accompanied by his attorney and was subsequently arrested.
“It is alleged that Janse van Rensburg defrauded the late Mrs Adendorff by luring her to sign up insurance policies and provided her with documents proving her ownership of the policies and also attesting that the policies were active and were registered in her name.
“Upon Mrs Adendorff 's death in May 2015, her son Ralph Adendorff, listed as a beneficiary, received a summary of investments dating back to between July 2008 and March 2015.
“When he submitted claims to the respective insurance companies, Old Mutual and Momentum confirmed that the policies were not registered in the name of the deceased although she had been in possession of documentary evidence,” Mgolodela said.
She said the case against Janse van Rensburg was opened in 2017. At the time he was already in prison for similar cases of fraud in which he targeted elderly women.
Mgolodela said Janse van Rensburg was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment with an alternative fine on one case, which he paid. In the second matter he was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment, with five years suspended over a period of five years with stringent conditions.
“On the latter matter, Janse van Rensburg had been released after he received a presidential pardon,” she said.
The matter has been postponed until March 1.
African News Agency