Prepaid electricity fiddle costs former clerk his pension and 10 years in jail

Credit controller Pieter Adams found guilty on 435 counts of fraud

05 February 2025 - 18:56 By Kim Swartz
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Free tokens were issued outside of working hours for prepaid meters. Stock photo.
Free tokens were issued outside of working hours for prepaid meters. Stock photo.
Image: 123RF/liudmilachernetska

A former municipal credit control clerk has been sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment and had his pension confiscated after being convicted of defrauding his employer of R1.3m.

Pieter Adams, 58, worked at the Bergrivier municipality until retiring in late 2019. He was responsible for issuing electricity tokens for meters that had been replaced but still had units available and also captured details of new prepaid meters on the municipal system.

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said the “municipality discovered that his prepaid electricity meter was replaced and changed to an indigent tariff ...  He did not report this to his direct manager.”

“This led to an internal investigation which revealed that from March 2016 until September 2019, he issued free electricity tokens on prepaid meters that were not replaced. The investigation also revealed that free electricity tokens were issued monthly to the same prepaid meters.”

The free tokens were issued outside working hours. Several prepaid meters displayed a large balance of electricity units, the investigation revealed, but those customers had not purchased electricity from the municipality in a while.

The Bellville commercial crimes court heard that Adams defrauded his employer municipality of R1,310,507 which led to funding being taken away from other service delivery items such as lighting, roads and streets.

“His fraud had an enormous financial effect on Bergrivier municipality, impacting the reputation of the municipality and the trust the public had in them to ensure effectiveness in good governance, accountability, financial sustainability and service delivery.

“The court convicted Adams on 435 counts of fraud and sentenced him to 10 years direct imprisonment with six years suspended for five years. It then granted a confiscation order to the value of his pension of more than R500,000, to be paid to the Bergrivier municipality,” said Ntabazalila.

TimesLIVE


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