The East London Hawk’s Serious Commercial Crimes Investigation working tirelessly with South African Revenue Service (SARS) ensured that Akanyang Trevor Mentoro (37) an accounting consultant appeared before the East London Magistrates court on 17 September 2024 facing allegations of fraud. His co-accused Alicia Nontsapho Mnqwazi (65) the sole director of Mwendane Skills Providers CC has since been arrested on 24 April 2024 where she appeared before East London Magistrates court on the same day of her arrest and was released on R10 000 bail.

It is alleged that during the period between 2019 and 2021, Mentoro and Mnqwazi intentionally submitted fraudulent Value Added Tax (VAT) 201 returns to SARS on behalf of the business entity. Subsequent to that, SARS conducted its internal assessment and picked up discrepancies in the returns submitted for the financial years in question. The reports divulged that the alleged returns were repudiated by SARS. The matter was reported to the Hawks for a thorough probe.

The
investigation by the Hawks revealed that the suspects had intentionally submitted false vat returns to defraud SARS, where the potential prejudice of an amount of over R5.8 million was nearly suffered in refund to their business entity.

Mentoro was arrested by the investigating team of the Hawks on 17 September 2024 and he made his first court appearance before East London Magistrates’ court on the same day where he was released on R5 000 bail.

The matter was remanded to 16 October 2024 to join his co-accused at Regional court.

Source: South African Police Service