Life cover fraud: Hawks nab funeral parlour owner and accomplices

A funeral parlour owner, along with three others, are in the dock for alleged fraud after they were apprehended by the Durban Serious Commercial Crime (Hawks), earlier this week.

The accused, aged between 39 and 61, appeared in the Durban Magistrates Court on Thursday.

Cpt Simphiwe Mhlongo of the Hawks, said: “It is alleged that two of the accused took out a life cover using an identity document of the victim. In September 2017, the two lodged a claim alleging that the insured person passed away. An insurance company forensic investigator smelt a rat and probed the claim. A case of fraud was reported at Durban North police station and the case docket was allocated to the Hawks for intensive investigation.”

ALSO READ: Two arrested after fraudulent Sassa grant application

Preliminary investigations revealed that the person, whose identity document was used, is still alive and the wrong body was allegedly sent to the doctor through the arrested funeral parlour owner and the two accused.

“Furthermore, the supposed beneficiaries of the insurance were not related to the insured person. It was further revealed that the fourth accused allegedly provided the identity document to her accomplices. A potential loss of R110,000 was halted,” he concluded.

This article was republished from Rising Sun Overport with permission

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.