A man accused of faking his own death in 1999 and his wife who allegedly helped him, appeared in the Knysna magistrate’s court in the Western Cape on charges of insurance fraud and the unlawful possession of firearms.
The couple were living in Benoni when they allegedly scammed an Insurance company out of more than R1.7m by pretending he had died in a car crash.
The couple quietly left Gauteng for KwaZulu-Natal after receiving the pay-out and eventually settled in Knysna, where for years he owned an Auto Repairs and his wife employed to do their admin.
In 2020, the insurance company was tipped off about the possibility that they had been scammed, as he was apparently still alive. After an internal probe, a fraud docket was registered in October 2020 and assigned to the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crimes Unit for investigation, where the team traced the couple to Knysna, leading to their arrest.
The couple will be transferred to Gauteng to face a charge of fraud since the crime was committed there.
Congratulations to our investigators, Members, Law Enforcement Agencies and everyone involved in tracking down these criminals! This has once again proven the importance of Public Private Partnerships, resilience and dedication which has resulted in this breakthrough in addressing life insurance fraud.
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