CAPE TOWN - The Gqeberha Regional New Law Court sentenced an Eastern Cape woman who defrauded the Road Accident Fund (RAF) 384 hours of community services at the Joubertina police station.
Marlene Pietersen, 42, was convicted on a charge of fraud and has been ordered by the court to serve out her sentence within 24 months.
The court also sentenced her to five years imprisonment wholly suspended for five years.
The court also declared Pietersen unfit to possess a firearm.
According to the provincial spokesperson for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks), Captain Yolisa Mgolodela, Pietersen submitted a false RAF claim for her husband, Niklass Gallant, on April 24, 2018, who fell off a bridge in Joubertina and purported that he died as a result of a motor vehicle accident.
“On submission of the claims, RAF identified some discrepancies and lodged a complaint with Gqeberha based Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team of the Hawks for probing, which culminated in the arrest of Pietersen on October 5, 2021.
“Investigations revealed that Gallant fell off the bridge on July 7, 2014 while walking along the bridge drunk with his friends. The claim is reported to have a potential prejudice cash value of R700 000,” Mgolodela said.
She said Pietersen was convicted on October 7 on a charge of fraud by the same court.
In an unrelated incident, earlier this week an interprovincial operation conducted by the Hawks led to the disbanding of mandrax tablet manufacturing facilities in two houses - one in Umlazi and the other in New Germany in KwaZulu-Natal.
IOL