Authorities have clamped down on vehicle testing station fraud, with 11 suspects having been arrested in three provinces as part of operation “Sesfikile”.
The Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation Unit, together with the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) traced and arrested the suspects at various places in Gauteng, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal between November 4 and 9.
The suspects, police said, are a combination of vehicle owners who received fraudulent roadworthy certificates and officials who authorised and issued them.
This includes cashiers and vehicle examiners at the Mookgopong Private Testing Station in Limpopo, who allegedly authorised six roadworthy certificates without following due process in May 2019. Worst still, the suspects allegedly committed identity fraud too, using the ID documents of another person as an applicant without their knowledge.
These fraudulent activities were first detected by the RTMC, which then opened a case docket of fraud and handed it to the Polokwane-based Harks Commercial Crime unit for further investigation.
The suspects are expected to appear in the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Polokwane on December 12.
However, authorities are still in the process of tracing other suspects, police said.
The Department of Transport (DOT) announced in October that it planned to introduce smart technologies in a bid to clamp down on fraud at vehicle testing centres as well as driving licence testing centres. These systems would also integrate with systems operated by the Department of Home Affairs.
This, the DOT said, would usher in digitised vehicle roadworthy testing, which includes multi-factor authentication for examiners and geofencing of tests. This project is being deployed in a phased approach, starting with Gauteng, Eastern Cape and Western Cape.
IOL