THE lid has been blown off from what could be an elaborate scheme of insurance fraud that possibly involves the renting out of corpses.

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On Thursday, November 18, a man employed as a corpse washer at a funeral parlour in Isipingo, and a woman, were arrested in Durban after their alleged plot was discovered. Both their names are known to the SUN, but cannot be disclosed while the investigation continues.

Muzi Hlengwa, who owns Bejay Funeral Services in Durban, said his company informed the police of the crime after discovering that his mortuary had been used by the suspects to store a body that had allegedly been taken from another mortuary.

“I usually help out other funeral companies with the storage of corpses. On Tuesday, November 16, we received a request from a funeral parlour, that we have worked with before, that they would like to store a body with us,” said Hlengwa.

When the male corpse was brought in, Hlengwa said his staff noticed that it was sweating, an indication that it was thawing out as it had been taken out of a very cold environment, possibly from another mortuary.

“It raised a red flag as we had been told that the corpse had been fetched from the deceased’s home. The ID photo also did not match the deceased,” said Hlengwa.

He said the following day a woman, who said she was the deceased’s relative, came in and allegedly filled out paperwork that would allow her to have a death certificate issued to her.

Hlengwa said things took a turn on Friday, November 19, when a man, who is employed as a body washer at the Isipingo funeral parlour, came in and asked to take the body to its alleged family.

“We asked him questions, such as how the body ended up at Bejay Funeral Services if he is from the Isipingo parlour and the body was picked up from ‘home’. He eventually confessed that he had taken the corpse from his workplace in Isipingo so that a death certificate could be issued to the female suspect, who was posing as a relative. His cut would have been R3 000.”

According to Hlengwa, after the man’s confession, the woman was contacted again and asked to fill out more papers. She was subsequently arrested by police, who had been notified shortly after she arrived at the office of Bejay Funeral Services.

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Provincial SAPS spokesperson, Colonel Thembeka Mbele confirmed the case was being investigated, but noted that an internal investigation, regarding the conduct of the arresting police officers, was also being conducted. She was unable to clarify what the officers were accused of.

“Unfortunately, we cannot comment further on the merits of our investigation at this stage,” said Mbele.

The Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (ASISA) said there has been an increase in the number of fraudulent and dishonest claims. The convener of the ASISA forensics standing committee, Megan Govender said the increase in these claims is not surprising as tough economic conditions made it tempting for dishonest policyholders and syndicates to try their luck, in the hope of scoring sizeable insurance pay-outs.

“Since funeral insurance policies do not require blood tests and medical examinations, and are designed to pay out quickly and without hassle when an insured family member dies, criminals and dishonest individuals most commonly try their luck in this space,” said Govender.

Phone calls to the funeral parlour in Isipingo went unanswered.    

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