North West School Clerk Faces 436 Fraud, Theft Charges for Pocketing R2.4m, Appears in Court
- A school finance clerk has been charged with 436 counts of fraud and theft after pocketing large sums of money
- Lorato Junitor Motiki allegedly pocked over millions from Lichtenburg Primary School's coffers for personal gain
- The Hawks arrested Motiki on 6 December 2024, appearing in court on the same day to face the charges against her
- Warrant Officer Amogelang Malwetse told Briefly News Motiki was due to attend a disciplinary hearing on her arrest
Source: UGC
LICHTENBURG — A finance clerk in Lichtenburg faces 436 fraud and theft charges after allegedly pocketing R2,4 million at a North West school.
The accused, Lorato Junitor Motiki, appeared in the Lichtenburg Magistrate's Court on Friday, 6 December 2024, following her arrest on the same day.
Clerk faces R2.4m fraud, theft charges
The Mahikeng-based Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations' (Hawks) Serious Commercial Crime Investigation Unit executed the arrest.
In response to a Briefly News inquiry, North West Hawks spokesperson Warrant Officer Amogelang Malwetse said the police had attempted to effect Motiki's arrest warrant a day earlier.
"She was supposed to be arrested on Thursday (5 December), but we couldn't find her because she was [reportedly] out of town.
"She was found the next day and arrested as she was reportedly making her way to the [North West] Department of Education to appear for a disciplinary hearing," Malwetse told Briefly News.
Motiki allegedly committed fraud and theft at the school over 43 months, from November 2019 to June 2023.
"She made multiple transactions from the school's bank account to [at least] three different bank accounts of her own under the guise they belonged to service providers," said Malwetse.
"She pretended to pay for services such as stationery procurement, security service, refund payments and water and electricity bills."
After taking additional steps to defraud the school by creating bogus documents to release payments, the school lost over R2,4 million.
"In reality, the service providers were fraudulent, and the school had never received any services. The court granted R5,000 bail for her release following her appearance."
The case was postponed to 28 January 2025.
Convicted fraudster found hiding in freezer
In related news, Briefly News reported that you can run but can't hide from the long arm of the law.
Prishne Khan, a convicted fraudster, found that out the hard way when she attempted to evade arrest. The court previously sentenced Khan, 37, to 10 years imprisonment for fraud and a further four years for theft.
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Source: Briefly News
