Durban - The long arm of the law caught up to a woman who, in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, stole more than R700 000 that was meant for employees who found themselves without work.
Boitumelo Mashele was found guilty of stealing R736 598.19 – meant to pay employees as part government’s Covid-19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (Ters) – by Specialised Crimes Court on Friday and given a three-year suspended sentence.
The court, in addition, ordered her to repay R215 000.00 to the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) after disposing of her house.
The balance of R 521 598.19 will be recovered from a preservation order that was obtained by Asset Forfeiture Unit last year, the UIF said in a statement.
According to the UIF, the money was paid into a bank account that was provided by Ulwembu Business Services where Mashele worked.
The financial institution alerted the UIF to suspicious financial transactions of the Ters funds, and preliminary investigations showed that the funds were spent on Mashele’s personal expenses.
The fund opened a criminal case with the SAPS and handed over the file to the Fusion Centre for further investigation.
“Our continuous collaboration with different organisation such as law enforcement agencies and financial institutions adds value and credibility to our investigations leading to the apprehension of those who have defrauded the fund,” said Advocate Mzie Yawa, UIF’s acting commissioner.
This was the third successful conviction of Covid-19 Ters fraud and the UIF said it was determined that more will follow as 16 arrests had already been made by the police.
“The UIF has further identified 46 fraud cases through the ’follow the money project’ and we are confident more arrests will be made soon,” said Yawa.
The fund has so far recovered over R827 million through the “follow the money project” and it is anticipated that more will be recovered as the fund extends it with a further 12 months.
In May, the then acting UIF commissioner Marsha Bronkhorst told parliament’s standing committee that 89 cases of fraud were being probed.
Recovery payments amounting to R2.2 billion were paid to the UIF on a voluntary basis by employers.
IOL