Megan Zowitsky allegedly lodged false medical claims and channelled the payments into her bank account.
|||Cape Town - A credit controller at a Netcare hospital in Cape Town, who allegedly lodged false medical claims and channelled the payments into her bank account, appeared in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court on Friday.
Megan Zowitsky, 45, was not asked to plead to 13 counts of fraud involving R113,741 when she appeared before magistrate Sabrina
Sonnenberg.
According to the charge sheet, she was the credit controller at the hospital in 2008.
In 2009, the Commissioner of Child Welfare appointed her as her niece's guardian following her brother's death. A trust was set up for the niece, administered by the Old Mutual Trust.
According to the charge sheet, Zowitsky, as credit controller at the hospital, was responsible for the administration at specific (but unnamed) medical aid schemes.
She also had to resolve medical aid-related and patient-related queries.
As her niece's guardian, she had to submit documentary proof to the Old Mutual Trust, of claims for her niece's medical and other expenses.
Prosecutor Simone Liedeman alleged that Zowitsky submitted false documentation to substantiate false claims for her niece's medical expenses for treatment, or her niece's admission to the hospital.
It is alleged that Zowitzky, in this manner, channelled medical payouts totalling R113,741 into her private banking account.
Legal aid defence attorney Hailey Lawrence told the court that Legal Aid SA had rejected Zowitsky's application for free legal aid.
Lawrence said Zowitsky was entitled to appeal Legal Aid SA's decision, and that she would assist Zowitsky with the appeal.
Zowitsky was told to return to court on November 1, for the outcome of the appeal. - Sapa