File
The former VWSA fleet administrator, who was sentenced to direct imprisonment for defrauding the company of R12 million, has died.
The Department of Correctional Services on Sunday confirmed Christo De Jager's death.
DCS spokesperson, Singabakho Nxumalo told Algoa FM News that he died on Friday in a public hospital
No further details were made known.
De Jager, 61, was sentenced in the Gqeberha Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on 15 July on one count of corruption and 594 counts of fraud.
The crimes were committed between November 2014 and March 2021.
He used his position to hatch a scheme with an employee at body repair company Autotrust to do work for VWSA.
De Jager was then paid monthly for generating fraudulent invoices.
On the corruption charge, De Jager was sentenced to 10 years, which has been wholly suspended for five years.
Magistrate Lionel Lindoor sentenced him to five years of direct imprisonment in line with Section 276 1 (i) of the Criminal Procedure Act on the myriad of fraud charges.
This meant De Jager would have to serve a sixth of his sentence, and could then be released under correctional supervision.
It would have equated to ten months behind bars.
At the time of his passing, de Jager was in prison for two months.
In deviating from the minimum prescribed sentence of 15 years during sentencing, Lindoor said he had taken De Jager's age, his health conditions, the fact that he pleaded guilty and that he is a first offender into account.
