The accused, Chatoorsain Hulloowan (55) and Saphia Ismail (55) appeared before the Marquard Magistrates’ Court  today, 16 September 2021 where they faced charges of theft, fraud and corruption. They were arrested in the early hours of today by the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team based in Bethlehem.

It is alleged that during the period from January 2010 until June 2017, Hulloowan who was employed as a supervisor at Sparta Beef made fraudulent payments and duplicate weighbridge tickets to Ismail who was the director of Safiena Distributors CC. It is further alleged that the times and products were falsely captured on weighbridge and the registration numbers of the vehicles captured during delivery were not of the trucks but of the sedan vehicles.

It is was further revealed that Safiena Distributors in some of the occasions they were allegedly paid without delivering the products. After every payment made by Sparta to Safiena, there would be a direct transfer of money into Ismail’s bank account. As a result Sparta Beef suffered a total loss of R8 million.

The matter was then reported to the Hawks for further investigation which resulted in the arrest of the accused. The case was remanded to Thursday, 28 October 2021 for both accused to appear at the Special Commercial Crimes Court in Bethlehem. They were released on R5000-00 bail each.

Source: South African Police Service