Cape Town – A former municipal worker has been charged with 473 counts of fraud, amounting to more than R1 million.
Pieter Jacobus Adams, 56, who was arrested on Tuesday and appeared in the Piketberg Magistrate’s Court in the Western Cape on the same day, was granted R500 bail, reports said.
News24 said Adams is alleged to have issued free electricity tokens to households and businesses for cash, pocketing more than R1.3 million.
Adams worked as credit control clerk in the Bergrivier Municipality from July 2002 until he resigned in November 2019, the report said.
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Adams will reappear at Bellville specialised commercial crimes court on 24 March, reported HeraldLIVE.
It is alleged that Adams issued more than 700 000 units of free electricity tokens between 2016 and 2019 to prepaid meters for customers.
Provincial National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said: “He received the cash from the customers, kept it for himself and then loaded the free electricity tokens on the system for the customers, which he was not entitled to do.”
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Compiled by Olwethu Mpeshe
