The Provincial Head, Major General Mboiki Obed Ngwenya welcomed the sentence meted out to Brian John Neary (59) by the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on 24 January 2023 for defrauding South African Revenue Services (SARS).
During the period between June 2010 and April 2012, Neary submitted inflated Value Added Tax (VAT) claims for business expenses on behalf of his company which was already liquidated.
As a result of the falsified documents to SARS, cash to the value of more than R409 000-00 was credited into his company’s business account.
During the auditing session, the company was randomly selected and that is when the red flag was picked up. The matter was reported to the Hawks’ Gqeberha based Serious Commercial Crime Investigation in 2016.
The investigation ensued which led to the arrest of Neary in July 2019 whereby he was released on warning after the court appearance.
Neary was convicted and sentenced on 24 January 2023. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment which is suspended for five years.
He was further ordered to pay R409 852 on monthly instalments of R7000-00 into the Criminal Assets Recovery Account (CARA).
