Gqeberha Woman Receives 15 Year Sentence for Defrauding Training Centre of R13.4 Million

• A 65-year-old Estelle Burgess from Gqeberha has been given a 15-year sentence for stealing R13.4 million from a training centre in the Eastern Cape
• Burgess committed the crime by sending money from the training centre to nine of her accounts, listed as creditors and suppliers
• She faced over 900 counts of fraud and it has been suspected that she committed the fraud because she has a gambling addiction

GQEBERHA - The Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Port Elizabeth has sentenced 65-year-old Estelle Burgess to 15 years' imprisonment for stealing R13.4 million from an Eastern Cape Training.

According to EWN, Burgess confessed to defrauding the training centre over a period of 10 years and was faced with over 900 charges of fraud.

According to the National Prosecuting Authority, Burgess defrauded the training centre while she was employed as creditor's clerk between 2004 and 2014.

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NPA spokesperson Anelisa Ngcakani says Burgess had opened up nine bank accounts to which she fraudulently sent money from the training centre. She erroneously listed the bank accounts on spreadsheets with the names of creditors and suppliers, according to The South African.

This was particularly easy for Burgess to do as she was in charge of paying the centre's creditors and suppliers.

Burgess has not stated reasons why she stole funds from the training centre, however, regional magistrate's Nolitha Bara stated that there was evidence that Burgess may have committed the fraud because she had a gambling problem.

Bara also stated that Burgess had the opportunity to stop the fraud as it took place over several years. She was arrested by the Hawks in 2019.

Fraudsters scam more than R500m from insurers by buying bodies and faking accidents

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Briefly News previously reported that insurers paid approximately R522.7 billion to policyholders and beneficiaries last year after over 430 000 legitimate death claims. In 2020, 3 186 dishonest and fraudulent claims were made, amounting to R587 million.

Workers in mortuaries have allegedly been selling bodies, among other things, in order to obtain ID numbers. This is just one of the ways South African criminals are attempting to gain cash from funeral policies.

The Association for Savings and Investment SA (Asisa) stated on Monday, 23 August, that South Africa's life insurance companies reported an increase of 12% in dishonest and fraudulent claims across all areas of risk business last year if compared with the year before.

Source: Briefly News