A Ladysmith man found guilty of fraud has been sentenced to an effective seven years behind bars.
Mohamed Saleen, 55, was convicted and sentenced in the Ladysmith Magistrate’s Court this week.
The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations (known as Hawks) said the fraud took place between 2005 and 2009.
Hawks spokesperson Simphiwe Mhlongo said Saleen, together with his co-accused, misrepresented quotations for the goods or services to the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education that were prepared by different service providers.
“They also misrepresented to the department that their quotations were reflecting a fair market value for the goods or services they supplied,” Mhlongo said.
In explaining the fraud further, Mhlongo said Saleen owned seven different companies and misrepresented the quotes in each of the tenders, resulting in one of his companies getting the job.
“Due to their conduct, the department was prejudiced in appointing the correct service providers to render services for value for money. As a result the department also incurred irregular expenditure which was over R25 million.”
Mhlongo said some of Saleen’s accomplices were acquitted, while Ameetha Datadin, 62, and Pradeep Datadin, 63, are back on trial in January.
In another incident, six people, including two Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga, education officials, are facing fraud charges amounting to R3 million.
The accused are: Nomthandazo Delsie Khoza, 41, Error Mosibudi Makutu, 45, Patrick Ngobeni, 40, Themba Confidence Khoza, 42, Musa Brandon Mathebula, 43, and Portia Khoza, 44.
Some are accused of creating fraudulent beneficiaries of late employees within the Department of Education and then channelling payments to themselves and their relatives’ personal bank accounts.
IOL News