SARS Employees Jailed for Yet Another Cyber Crime

SARS Employees Jailed for Yet Another Cyber Crime

Two former South African Revenue Service (SARS) employees and two others have been sentenced to 15 years in jail for VAT fraud orchestrated through a username and password.  The four were found guilty of 10 counts of fraud and were penalized for conning SARS for roughly R500 000.


Based on compelling evidence, Gorette du Plessis, one of the convicts, illicitly re-activated 10 dormant closed corporations (CCs) on SARS' systems, created fictitious transactions and claimed refunds using her password and VAT refund authorisation code.  All 10 fraudulent VAT refunds were traced back to Du Plessis' account.



The other three employees were Majorie Chidi, Mercy Papo, and Edmund Maloba.  Maloba and Du Plessis are former SARS employees who previously worked in the VAT section of the Pretoria Receiver of Revenue office.