Username lands four in jail

Johannesburg, 05 Sept 2008

Two former South African Revenue Service (SARS) employees and two others have been jailed for up to 15 years for VAT fraud - after being linked to the crime through a username and password.

The four were sentenced in the Pretoria Regional Court yesterday for defrauding SARS of approximately R500 000.

Regional court magistrate Leavit Mukansi said the group operated like a well-oiled machine, that the crimes were premeditated and were committed out of "nothing but greed".

Majorie Chidi, 30, and Mercy Papo, 32, both from Atteridgeville, Gorette du Plessis, 36, of Mountain View, and Edmund Maloba, 35, of Sunnyside, were found guilty on 10 counts of VAT fraud in May.

Maloba and Du Plessis are former SARS employees who previously worked in the VAT section of the Pretoria Receiver of Revenue office.

Chidi and Papo are both former girlfriends of Maloba.

The court found that Du Plessis had unlawfully re-activated 10 dormant closed corporations (CCs) on SARS' systems and changed the name of the representing officer, the bank account details and the postal addresses of these CCs.

She then used her password and VAT refund authorisation code to generate the electronic transfer of fraudulent VAT refunds into accounts of Chidi and Popo, before she made the CCs "dormant" again. SARS was defrauded of approximately R470 000 in this way.

Serious offences

Although there was no evidence of any benefit to Du Plessis, all 10 fraudulent VAT refunds were traced back to her password and authorisation code. All the money was paid into accounts of Chidi and Papo, who made it available to Maloba when he requested it.

Magistrate Mukansi pointed out that the courts view white-collar crime as a serious misdeed, which poses a risk to society if left unpunished. "White-collar crime is as serious as violent crimes."

He added that he had a duty to demonstrate to society the court's contempt for the "premeditated act of corruption to steal money belonging to the taxpayers of SA".

"Maloba and Du Plessis were in a position of trust. The crimes were committed on several occasions. They had ample time to reconsider, but instead they perpetuated their crimes and diverted attention from themselves by using other people's accounts in this well-oiled scheme to defraud SARS," he said.

He took the personal circumstances of the accused into account, including the fact that Du Plessis has cancer and receives chemotherapy, and that Chidi and Papo are mothers of young children.

He turned down an application for leave to appeal because he was convinced no other court would have come to a different conclusion. He also rejected argument by defence counsel that the sentences were "inhumane and grossly inappropriate".