A 57-year-old suspect was arrested in Vereeniging on 26 May 2022, by the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team based in Welkom.
A preliminary probe conducted by the Department of Education discovered that the suspect who was working as a Human Resource Officer at Fezile Dabi District created ghost employees in the Department’s system.
It is alleged that the ghost employees and salary advices were created in the names of her family members. She then used her personal banking details as if they belonged to those ghost employees.
The accused made salary payments to different bank accounts that belonged to her. The incident took place between the periods of 2006 until 2018. As a result of these fraudulent activities the Department of Education was prejudiced and suffered a total loss of more than R1 million.
A case docket was registered and handed over to the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team based in Welkom for further investigation which culminated in the arrest of the suspect yesterday, 26 May 2022.
The suspect is expected to appear before Sasolburg Magistrates’ Court this morning where she will face charges of fraud, forgery, uttering and money laundering.
