Insurance fraudster who lied about hijacking and set his car alight gets 7 years

A man who defrauded an insurance company of R300,000 after reporting a false hijacking has been sentenced to seven years in prison.

“The accused reported a case of hijacking in October 2016 at the Brakpan police station.

“He informed the police that his silver Volvo had been hijacked and he subsequently claimed from an insurance company. The police and his employer, the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, investigated his claim and came to the conclusion that it was false,” police spokesperson Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said in a statement on Wednesday.

The police later established that Ashley Naicker and a colleague had set the vehicle alight.

He was subsequently arrested and convicted in the Springs Magistrate’s Court on July 29.

The police have cautioned members of the public not to report bogus cases as “justice will at the end of the day catch up with them”.

“It is a crime to lay false charges as the police waste a lot of human and physical resources, which may be provided to people who are need of these services. False charges also add to crime statistics which may in turn indicate a false alarm about increasing levels of crime,” Dlamini said.

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