Ex-municipal worker jailed 5 years for R1.4m fraud - TimesLIVE

A former Thabo Mofutsanyana local municipality employee has been sentenced to an effective five years in prison for fraud and money laundering after more than R1.4m intended for the Compensation Fund was paid into his company account.

Thabo Mosupa, 45, was sentenced by the Bethlehem specialised commercial crimes court after being convicted on multiple counts of fraud and money laundering. His company, The Seven One Stop, was fined.

The case dates back to 2017, when the municipality made a payment of more than R1.4m to the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (Coida), Hawks spokesperson W/O Fikiswa Matoti said in a statement on Tuesday.

The payment was initially transferred into a Nedbank account but was returned to the municipality after the account was found to be invalid.

The municipality subsequently transferred the money into an FNB account believed to belong to Coida. However, the department of employment and labour’s Compensation Fund later confirmed that the compensation payment had not been received.

The department provided the municipality with the correct banking details, which were for an Absa account.

This prompted the municipality to launch an internal investigation to establish what had happened to the funds.

A criminal case was subsequently opened and referred to the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation unit in Bethlehem for further investigation.

The investigation revealed that the FNB account into which the more than R1.4m had been transferred was linked to The Seven One Stop, a company owned by Mosupa, Matoti said.

Mosupa was arrested and made several court appearances before he was convicted.

The court sentenced him to an effective five years’ imprisonment for fraud and money laundering.

His company was fined R700,000, with the entire fine suspended for five years on condition that it is not convicted of fraud or theft during the suspension period.