R15m tax fraud gets man 12 years’ jail

A 49-year-old Cape Town man has been sentenced to a total of 12 years of direct imprisonment after he was convicted on 400 counts of fraud.

The Wynberg Regional Court found Johannes Wessels guilty of defrauding the SA Revenue Services (Sars) of almost R15 million.

Yesterday, the Western Cape National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said Wessels had committed the fraud “through VAT returns that contained false information, filing false tax invoices, failing to submit income tax returns and failing to keep proper books”.

Western Cape NPA spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said Wessels entered into a plea and sentencing agreement with the state.

“The court convicted him on 88 counts of fraud against Sars premised on VAT 201 returns containing false information, 315 counts of fraud against Sars premised on false tax invoices to substantiate false VAT refunds claimed. Six counts of c/s 75(1) (a) of the Income Tax Act for failing to submit tax returns and five counts of c/s 58(f) for failing to keep proper books of account.”

Wessels, described by the NPA as a “bogus businessman”, was director and representative vendor of three companies and “in effective control of two closed corporations of which his wife was the member and representative vendor”.

“The entities all claimed VAT refunds over a protracted period and in total R14 979 992 was paid to them by the Sars.”

Ntabazalila said Wessels gambled away a large portion of the money. – ANA