A former child maintenance official appeared in a Cape Town court for allegedly failing to repay money she stole.
|||Cape Town - A woman appeared in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Cape Town on Tuesday for allegedly failing to repay money she stole.
A former child maintenance official at the Bishop Lavis Magistrate's Court, Rene Borchjes, 39, was given a suspended prison sentence for fraud and money laundering in December.
She was sentenced to six years, suspended for five, on condition that by the end of December she repay the department of justice the R80 000 she stole.
Prosecutor Simon Leope alleged that Borchjes had breached the condition.
He said she was back in custody, and that the State would launch an application for her suspended sentence to be revoked so she could start serving jail time.
She appeared before magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg, who postponed the matter to February 10 to enable her to re-engage defence attorney W Fourie.
Fourie represented Borchjes at trial on six counts of fraud and six of money laundering. Her trial took the form of a plea-bargain.
As a maintenance investigator, Borchjes had to investigate complaints of failure to pay child support allowance.
She had to determine whether errant fathers belonged to provident or pension funds, and furnish employers and fund management with maintenance court orders.
Borchjes used fake court orders to fraudulently secure pension and provident fund payouts into the court's bank account.
To cover her tracks, the money would be channelled into the bank accounts of mothers receiving maintenance via the court.
Borchjes then informed the mothers that the money had been paid in error, and that they had to repay the amounts into her own bank account.
Sapa