Cape Town - Four people from the Free State have been sentenced in the Harrismith Magistrate’s Court on a number of charges, including identity theft of corpses.
Malefu Mary Mokoena, 22, Maneo Paulina Mokoena, 45, Mannini Elizabeth Mphethen, 45 and 35-year-old Tumela Isaac Moeletsane were convicted on charges relating to gang activity, fraud, identity theft, attempted murder, kidnapping and money laundering.
According to the provincial spokesperson for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks), Captain Christopher Singo, the group were arrested in Phuthadithjaba on November 19, 2019.
He said members of the Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime team, Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team and Crime Intelligence (CI) apprehended the group after they had taken a corpse from the Phuthadithjaba Forensic Pathology Services.
“An investigation was conducted by the Hawks, and they discovered that the accused were taking policies with different insurance companies, and later, they will go to different government mortuaries and identified those people as the people they covered on their policies.
“After taking these corpses, they will then go and claim the policies using fake identities. It was discovered that they were also kidnapping people and claimed that a person is dead in order for them to claim from the policies.
“The amount of policies that the accused persons claimed from the insurance companies is estimated at R430 000,” Singo said.
He said the incidents took place during the period of 2017 until 2019.
Maneo Paulina Mokoena was sentenced to 16 years direct imprisonment.
The court ordered Malefu Mary Mokoena to five years direct imprisonment, and both Mphetheng and Moeletsane were each sentenced to eight years direct imprisonment.
IOL