Home Affairs official gets 5 years for faking deaths in insurance scam
Manipulated the national population register
A FORMER Home Affairs official has been sentenced to five years imprisonment after orchestrating an elaborate fraud scheme where she manipulated the national population register to fake deaths and claim over from insurance companies
Image: File
A FORMER Home Affairs official has been sentenced to five years imprisonment after orchestrating an elaborate fraud scheme where she manipulated the national population register to fake deaths and claim over R334,000 from insurance companies.
Her actions left victims officially recorded as 'deceased' in government systems
Dawn Celeste Pieterson, 46, of the Northern Cape, was sentenced by the Calvinia Specialised Commercial Crime Court after being found guilty on all nine counts of fraud, as well as two counts of contravening the Birth and Death Registration Act, the court confirmed.
According to Lieutenant Colonel Tebogo Thebe, Pieterson’s fraudulent activities took place between February 2019 and September 2022 while she was employed by the Department of Home Affairs in Calvinia.
“As part of her duties, she had access to the national population register. Pieterson took out funeral cover policies from reputable insurance companies and nominated herself as the beneficiary. She manipulated the register by falsely issuing BI-1663 forms to record the fictitious deaths of the victims,” Thebe explained.
The false registrations caused significant problems for the individuals affected, who were officially listed as deceased. Four insurance companies collectively suffered a loss of R334,634 due to Pieterson’s unlawful claims.
Pieterson was sentenced to five years of direct imprisonment for fraud. For contravening the Birth and Death Registration Act, she received a one-year sentence, wholly suspended for five years. She was also declared unfit to possess a firearm.
Major General Steven Mabuela, provincial head of the Hawks, commended the investigation and prosecution teams for their diligent work in securing the conviction.