A former insurance company advisor in the Eastern Cape has been convicted of 30 counts of fraud in the East London Regional Court on Wednesday.
Shaun Kenneth Dorning, 49, is alleged to have defrauded a company out of over R4.7 million.
He was arrested by members of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation’s (known as Hawks) Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team based in East London in conjunction with Priority Crime Specialised Investigation and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on November 29, 2023.
He appeared in court on the same day and was released on R10,000 bail.
The provincial spokesperson for the Hawks, Captain Yolisa Mgolodela said Dorning was appointed as an independent contractor to provide services to clients to canvass and procure applications for policies and products of Momentum.
In the course of his duties, he was appointed as a financial advisor for Aristopix PTY LTD.
“In 2020, Aristopix directors contacted Dorning seeking payment holidays on the investments held with Momentum. This was granted and Dorning advised the company to amend payment methods to be cash not debit order to suit the changes of the circumstances where the company directors accepted the advice,” Mgolodela said.
“Dorning made a misrepresentation to the directors of Aristopix by sending emails to the financial manager of the company pretending that the bank account number provided by him belonged to Momentum and the payment of more than R4.2 million was paid to the purported insurer.”
The client, Aristopix went to claim with their insurer, Momentum and this is when it dawned that no investments were made to the insurer as per the account details provided by Dorning.
“The actual prejudice including interest supposed to be accumulated during the period would have amounted to more than R4.7 million,” Mgolodela said.
The head of the Hawks in the Eastern Cape, Major General Mboiki Obed Ngwenya expressed his pride towards investigators’ expert skills that led to the conviction of Dorning within two months of the matter making it to the court roll.
The case has been postponed until April 10, for sentencing.
robin.francke@inl.co.za
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