Duo in court for fraut

On Thursday, 17 September 2021, the accused, Chatoorsain Hulloowan (55) and Saphia Ismail (55) appeared before the Marquard Magistrates’ Court facing charges of theft, fraud and corruption. They were arrested in the early hours of today by the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team based in Bethlehem.

It is alleged that during the period January 2010 – June 2017, Hulloowan, who was a supervisor at Sparta Beef, made fraudulent payments and duplicate weighbridge tickets to Ismail. Ismail was director of Safiena Distributors CC. It is further alleged that the times and products were falsely captured on weighbridge and the registration numbers of the vehicles captured during delivery were not of the trucks, but sedan vehicles.

It was further revealed that Safiena Distributors CC, in some instances, were allegedly paid without delivering products. After every payment made by Sparta to Safiena, there would be a direct transfer of money into Ismail’s bank account.

As a result, Sparta Beef suffered a total loss of R8 million.

The matter was then reported to the Hawks for further investigation which resulted in the arrest of the accused.

The case was remanded to Thursday, 28 October 2021, for the accused to appear at the Special Commercial Crimes Court in Bethlehem. They were released on R5000 bail each.