The court has found a former employee of the Elias Motsoaledi Municipality in Limpopo guilty of defrauding the South African Revenue Service (Sars) of nearly R1.7 million.
Evans Setshedi was convicted by the Mankweng Regional Court on Wednesday.
Police spokesperson, Captain Matimba Maluleke said in 2010, the 41-year-old submitted fake tax returns to Sars on the municipality’s behalf.
The money was then approved and deposited into his personal bank account, instead of that the municipality’s.
Several withdrawals were made by Setshedi and this made bank authorities suspicious.
After a verification process was carried out, it was revealed that the account number did not belong to the municipality.
He made use of another person’s particulars to open the account.
The bank authorities alerted the police of this fraudulent act and Setshedi was arrested.
Setshedi was convicted and sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment, of which four years were suspended for five years.
He will effectively serve four years in jail.
