A manager at the South African Police Service (SAPS) in the Eastern Cape has been sentenced by the Mthatha Specialised Commercial Crimes Court for fraud.
Fumanekile Gaba, a fleet manager at the SAPS local criminal record centre, was found guilty of the crime he committed between September 2019 and August 2020.
He will spend eight years in the dark cells for defrauding the SAPS about R110 000.
On Wednesday, National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson, Luxolo Tyali, said Gaba used a fleet fuel card belonging to a scrapped vehicle to fill fuel into his vehicle and vehicles belonging to cash-paying motorists at the Qunu service centre.
Based on a video footage from the filling station, Gaba can be seen participating in the scam from his vehicle.
“Internal auditing within SAPS picked up that the card was still in use even though the vehicle to which it was allocated had been boarded,” Tyali said.
“Subsequent investigations revealed that Gaba had been colluding with a petrol attendant at the filling station, and he was arrested. During trial, he pleaded not guilty.
“However, he changed his plea to that of guilty after senior state advocate, Mthuthuzeli Rangula, led the evidence of the petrol attendant, who became the state witness in accordance with section 204 of the Criminal Procedure Act.”
The court agreed with the prosecution’s submission that Gaba’s change of plea was not a sign of remorse.
“The court found that Gaba occupied a position of trust that he betrayed, and as an employee of the SAPS, he was supposed to uphold the highest form of honesty, but he chose to commit the offence out of greed.”
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