Chartered accounted sentenced for Ters fraud
Between April and August 2020, Vorster would apply for the Covid-19 Ters on behalf of his clients and after receiving payouts he would transfer the funds to his personal bank account.
A chartered accountant was sentenced to six years direct imprisonment for Covid-19 Temporary Employee Relief Scheme (Ters) fraud by the Pretoria specialised commercial crimes court yesterday.
Mark Jonathan Vorster (45) was found guilty of 11 counts of fraud.
He was given two years direct imprisonment for theft and four years direct imprisonment for laundering more than R800 000.
The sentences were ordered to run concurrently with the six years imprisonment.
Vorster was self-employed as a chartered accountant for five years under the company Basic Financial Solutions.
NPA regional spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana said that between April and August 2020, Vorster would apply for the Covid-19 Ters on behalf of his clients.
After receiving payouts, he would transfer the funds to his personal bank account.
“On August 14, FNB noticed unusual payments into Vorster’s bank account. After enquiring with him, the bank froze R400 000 of the funds that were still in his bank account and reported the matter to the Department of Labour and later to the police.”
Vorster was arrested on July 21, 2021.
Mahanjana added that Vorster pleaded guilty to the charges and asked that he be fined as a sentence because he had paid back the stolen funds to the Department of Labour.
However, in aggravation, the state prosecutor asked for a sentence of direct imprisonment because “when Vorster stole the money, he was in a position of trust and he betrayed it”.
She further added that these offences escalated to new levels “during a time when our country’s economy was brought to its knees by the Covid-19 pandemic”.
Handing down the sentence, the magistrate said that even though Vorster paid back the stolen money with interest, he did not show any remorse as the money he used to pay back the stolen money was not out of his pocket.
Moreover, Vorster only pleaded guilty to the charges because the state had an airtight case against him, and he had no other choice than to concede defeat.
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