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A 62-year-old pensioner is due to appear in the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court on Monday for alleged fraud and theft of large sums of money from the UIF COVID-19 TERS scheme.
The suspect was arrested by the Hawks Serious Corruption Investigation unit in Hammanskraal on Sunday.
This brings to 14 the number of people arrested in connection with UIF TERS fraud.
In a statement, the Hawks said the pensioner would be charged with fraud, alternatively theft and money laundering, after he failed to disclose that he became an instant millionaire.
The money was meant to remunerate employees of a certain company, to be disclosed in court papers, and it is understood that the suspect worked for the same firm.
He allegedly used the same reference number from his previous employer to apply for his UIF payout and after numerous enquiries by the company, it was found that the money was actually paid but was redirected to the suspect’s account.
A case was registered and almost R4.6 million has already been recovered. The pensioner allegedly used almost R100 000 on himself.
