Ex-VWSA fleet administrator found guilty of fraud

A former fleet administrator at Volkswagen SA (VWSA) has been convicted on 595 counts of fraud.

Christo de Jager, 60, was found guilty in the Gqeberha commercial crimes court on Monday.

Between November 2014 and March 2021, a service provider, Autotrust, was contracted to do auto body repair work for VWSA.

“Autotrust submitted fraudulent invoices to VWSA for services not rendered and De Jager assisted the company as an administrator to get the falsified invoices for payments,” Hawks spokesperson Warrant Officer Ndiphiwe Mhlakuvana said.

Mhlakuvana said an internal audit had found some discrepancies in the invoices submitted and the matter was reported to the Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team of the Hawks for investigation.

“The investigation by the Hawks exposed that Autotrust and De Jager had, during the period in question, submitted a total of 572 invoices which resulted in VWSA being prejudiced to a total amount of more than R12m.

“Further investigation revealed that Autotrust and De Jager had colluded to defraud VWSA.

“De Jager received payments for personal gain on a regular basis from Autotrust as kickbacks.”

De Jager was arrested on March 10 last year and released on warning later that day.

After several court appearances, he was finally convicted on Monday.

The case was postponed to May 22 for sentencing.

De Jager is no longer an employee of VWSA, which has since changed its name to VW Africa.

Acting provincial Hawks head Brigadier Venessa Hastings, commended the team for securing the conviction.