MONDAY, 11.00AM
THE Office for Serious Economic Offences is investigating 36 criminal cases involving R12-billion, a figure described by Oseo director Jan Swamepoel as “a drop in the ocean” compared with the total number of commercial crime cases reported to the police.
Swanepoel added that Oseo has been seriously undermined by shortage of resources, and has declared a moratorium on new investigations until the backlog of cases has been addressed. In 1995/96, Oseo initiated investigations involving R209-million, while it finalised and forwarded to the attorney-general cases involving R2-billion.
SA Police Service National Detective Service director Reg Crewe said in 1996 the commercial crimwe unit received 54 846 complaints totalling R3,83-billion, while in 1995, 51 117 cases involving R2,8-billion and in 1994 53 441 cases totalling R4,7-billion were reported.. He said thye most common commercial crime is fraud, followed by forgery and uttering, and theft.