Hawks arrest two who used unclaimed bodies to defraud insurance companies

Two people are alleged to have used unclaimed corpses to defraud insurance companies, the Hawks said on Thursday.

They have been arrested, said W/O Lynda Steyn.

“It is alleged that the suspects were producing fraudulent documents using identities of people who are still alive to claim dead bodies from government mortuaries. They would then transfer the corpses to private mortuaries. Subsequently, they would submit fictitious claims with different insurance companies,” said Steyn.

The pair was arrested on Monday and later appeared in the Phuthaditjhaba magistrate’s court.

“They were arrested by the Hawks’ serious commercial crime investigation team and Phuthaditjhaba SAPS members following a tip-off through Crime Intelligence, when they came to collect an unclaimed body at a local mortuary,” said Steyn.