Oudtshoorn municipal officer sentenced for fraud worth over US$130k

Fifty-five-year-old Frikkie van Staden, who was a superintendent for the Oudtshoorn municipality’s road and parks department, was convicted and sentenced for fraud involving over R1.9 million.

CAPE TOWN, April 29 (ANA) – A Western Cape municipal officer will spend the next four years in prison after he was sentenced for fraud at the Oudtshoorn regional court, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) said on Thursday.

Fifty-five-year-old Frikkie van Staden, who was a superintendent for the Oudtshoorn municipality’s road and parks department, was convicted and sentenced for fraud involving over R1.9 million (US$134,011) on Wednesday, Hawks spokeswoman Zinzi Hani said in a statement.

She said the Hawks’ serious commercial crime investigation team from George investigated the matter in which between 2010 and 2014 van Staden, who was responsible for the maintenance of roads among other responsibilities within the municipality, instructed his sister-in-law to register a company under her name.

Van Staden took over the company’s operations to score contracts with the municipality without his sister-in-law’s knowledge.

He was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for corruption, of which three years were suspended on condition that he is not convicted of similar crimes during the period of suspension.

He was also sentenced to two years for contravening crimes relating to the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.

The court sentenced van Staden to a further five years imprisonment for fraud, which were wholly suspended for five years. He will therefore effectively serve four years direct imprisonment.

Acting provincial head of the Hawks in the Western Cape Brigadier Mushavhaduvha Ramovha welcomed the conviction and sentence against van Staden.

– African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Stella Mapenzauswa