VAT fraud lands four in prison

FOUR PEOPLE - two of them former SA Revenue Service employees – were sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in the Pretoria Regional Court last week for defrauding Sars of approximately R500 000. 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 ten counts of VAT fraud in May. Du Plessis unlawfully re-activated ten 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 secret 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.