Pretoria - The Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court has sentenced a 45-year-old man, Naaym Hardien to 30 years’ imprisonment after convicting him of fraud and corruption.
Hawks spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Philani Nkwalase said Hardien was found guilty on both charges following a plea and sentence agreement.
“He was subsequently sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment for fraud and another 15 years’ imprisonment for corruption, of which seven years were suspended on both sentences for a period of five years on condition that the accused is not found guilty of similar offences,” said Nkwalase.
Hardien was arrested in November last year by Hawks officers from the serious corruption investigation team.
“His arrest was preceded by the allegations of colluding with a private entity and processing of fraudulent invoices for stock - plastic shrink wraps - that was neither delivered nor received by Sedibeng Breweries,” said Nkwalase.
“The Hawks serious corruption investigation established that the Sedibeng Breweries suffered an actual loss amounting to R81 568 900 and a potential loss of R16 million. The Hawks probe further revealed that the accused person received a gratification from the company owner amounting to R885 870 as a reward for assisting in the commission of a crime.”
The Hawks warned that more arrests are expected following the finalisation of Hardien’s case.
Last month, a former captain in the South African Police Service began serving her five years behind bars after she was convicted of over 50 counts of fraud and money laundering claiming she had a gambling problem.
Captain Sylvia Delores Carstens was sentenced in the Bellville Commercial Crimes Court to 10 years in jail, with five years suspended for five years on condition that she is not convicted of the same crime.
At the time, spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority, Eric Ntabazalila, said Carstens was employed at the Worcester police station as a finance clerk and later promoted to captain.
“Her responsibilities included safekeeping and payment of cash, safekeeping of the safe key, advance cash to the police officials and or authorised EFT onto the police official’ s bank account, checking, capturing and paying advances and claims to suppliers,” said Ntabazalila.
“She was also responsible for receiving monies seized by police and depositing police monies in the bank.”
IOL