ALRODE – J & J RUBBER Linings in Alrode South was conned by 15 workers with fraudulent doctor’s notes on October 1, losing R2 million in production time.
The conmen were caught after one man’s patient number corresponded with a completely different person’s patient number and on investigation they found that the numbers did not even exist.
Eight men were caught in one week having handed in these fake notes. Most of the notes say that they were suffering from “medical conditions”, “migraines”, “influenza” and “chest pains” among other things.
All the doctors notes come from Natalspruit and Germiston Hospitals although not one of the hospitals was involved in any way.
A lone ranger who sits in a pub in Natalspruit sells the fraudulent doctors notes at R70 per note and if you cannot afford that, he drops the amount to R50 per note.
If the man sells 10 per day in a four week month, he will make R14 000 in a month… tax free money for filling out fake doctors notes every day.
Eleven of the 15 workers have already been dismissed and four are still busy with their trial. “The amount of production time and money we lose is astronomical,” said Babsie.
The workers are usually off “sick” for about a week at a time in a three week period. “This has been done for many years and it is happening everywhere, although now people know about it,” said Babsie.
According to Babsie du Toit (J & J Rubber Linings) the superintendent at Natalspruit Hospital said that she could not believe how fast these conmen manage to copy the hospital stamp, even after they change it every so often because of the fraud going around.
“I would just like to warn other companies who might be going through the same situation but are not even aware of it,” ended Babsie.
