Joburg metro cops fleeced

A criminal syndicate with links to cashiers at the Johannesburg Metro Police Department has swindled the traffic law-enforcement agency out of R18-million.

Forensic investigations into fraud and corruption in the department found that the syndicate had infiltrated its licensing and fine-payment operations with the help of 50 cashiers and officials.

The pilfering occurred between 2008 and 2011, netting the fraudsters R18012944.73.

The forensic report, presented recently to the City of Johannesburg's municipal public accounts committee, shows that the three-year corruption spree was made easy by weak internal processes at the metro police department, "in particular the lack of controls over acceptance of cheques and lack of follow-up and recovery over dishonest cheques".

The metro police issue between 300000 and 400000 traffic fines a month, at an average value of R250.

The scam at the department centred mainly on "stolen and invalid cheques that would later be dishonoured by the bank".

"These cheques were obtained from serious crimes such as car hijackings, burglaries, armed robberies and theft of cheque books directly from the banks," according to the report.

The exact nature of the fraud - the modus operandi - is still not clear but, with banks possibly having been defrauded, the commercial crimes unit was called in.

Very few of the cashiers and officials implicated in the corruption have been apprehended to date.

"Court cases had already been opened against five identified individuals. These cases are being investigated by the police," said the report.

With only five suspects identified, 45 are still untouched. The DA spokesman on municipal public accounts in Johannesburg, John Mendelsohn, said it was likely the 45 were still in their jobs.

"Is Councillor Sello Lemao, the Johannesburg member of the mayoral committee for safety and security, fast asleep or is there some other reason for his failure to act swiftly in bringing to book all the culprits implicated in massive and continuing cheque fraud?" he said.

Hawks spokesman Captain Paul Ramaloko said there had been no arrests.

"We can confirm that we are investigating a case involving illegal cheques paid out by the City of Johannesburg. We haven't arrested anyone," said Ramaloko.

The R18-million scam also included "other various players within the vehicle licence renewal and registration chain", including people who queue to collect licences on behalf of others.

Metro police department spokesman Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar did not respond to questions from The Times.