/ 4 September 2008

Stiff sentences for defrauding SARS

Jail terms of 15 years each have been imposed on a man and a woman who defrauded the South African Revenue Service (SARS).

The Pretoria Regional Court also handed down sentences of 15 years each to the man’s two girlfriends.

The four operated like a well-oiled machine, committing their premeditated crimes out of ”nothing but greed”, magistrate Leavit Mukansi said in passing sentence on Wednesday.

In a statement, SARS said Majorie Chidi (30) and Mercy Papo (32) both of Atteridgeville, Gorette du Plessis (36) of Mountain View and Edmund Maloba (35) of Sunnyside, were found guilty on ten counts of value added tax (VAT) fraud in May.

”Maloba and Du Plessis are former SARS employees who previously worked in the VAT section of the Pretoria Receiver of Revenue office,” SARS said.

”Chidi and Papo are both former girlfriends of Maloba.”

SARS said Du Plessis unlawfully re-activated ten dormant closed corporations (CCs) on SARS’s systems then changed the name of their representing officer, bank account details and postal addresses.

”She then used her secret password and VAT refund authorisation code to generate the electronic transfer of fraudulent VAT refunds into accounts of Chidi and Papo, before she made the CC’s ‘dormant’ again.”

SARS said it was defrauded of about R470 000.

”Although there was no evidence of any benefit to Du Plessis, all ten fraudulent VAT refunds were traced back to her password and authorisation code.”

It said all the money was paid into Chidi and Papo’s accounts and they made it available to Maloba.

Mukansi told them white-collar crime was as serious as violent crime and posed a risk to society if it went unpunished. – Sapa