7 years behind bars for municipal fraudster

A former uMkhanyakude District Municipality accountant has been sentenced to seven years behind bars for fraud amounting to millions.

The Durban Specialised Commercial Crimes Court sentenced Lindiwe Ngomane (48) to direct imprisonment for fraud committed in March 2006 when she worked as an accountant for the district municipality.

For four counts of fraud, all taken as one for sentencing, Ngomane was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment, three of which were conditionally suspended for five years, meaning she will serve an effective seven years’ imprisonment.

Ngomane was sentenced alongside Nhlanhla Christian Gumede (65) and Raphael Mbili (44).

Gumede was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and Mbili six, half of which is conditionally suspended for five years, resulting in an effective sentence of three years.

Gaining access to the system

The National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA’s) spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara said at the time of the offence, Ngomane had managed to fraudulently obtain the passwords and credentials of senior officials who were authorised to effect payments on behalf of the municipality.

“She then used the said credentials to transfer approximately R6.2-million from the municipality’s bank account into different accounts which she had loaded onto the system,” said Ramkisson-Kara.

She said Gumede and Mbili assisted Ngomane in obtaining bank account details for one of the accounts belonging to someone who owned an investment company, where R1.5-million was deposited, adding that evidence led in court revealed that the owner of the bank account was unaware the money transferred into his account had been stolen.

Don’t have the ZO app? Download it to your Android or Apple device here: