Ekurhuleni official arrested for staged hijacking

The Star reports that Ashley Naicker, a senior clerk at the Ekurhuleni council’s Springs offices, was arrested last Friday at work after trying to claim R400 000 from Hollard Insurance for a burnt car.

Captain Johannes Ramphora is quoted as telling the publication: “This guy got two of his colleagues he is working with at the Ekurhuleni metro to hijack him and take the vehicle to the veld between Brakpan and Tsakane – next to Heidelberg Road – where they burned the car.”

The car in question, a Volvo V40 T3, was valued at about R400 000, and it is reported Naicker “couldn’t cope with his monthly instalments, which is why he tried to do these things so that the insurance, which is Hollard, could settle the car, so that he could buy another car”.

Ramaphora further told The Star Naicker was paid an unspecified portion of the R400 000 claim, of which he also received about R18 000 as “change”. His bank accounts were subsequently frozen, and police are determined to recover the money.

It is reported the police sought the assistance of crime intelligence operatives and the insurance company assessors to investigate the alleged hijacking, as there was “something fishy”.

That nothing other than the car was taken from Naicker raised the intelligence unit’s suspicions. Naicker’s cellphone, wallet and other valuables were not taken, and this is what set the authorities on his tail.

“We tracked down Niacker’s two colleagues, who told us everything that Naicker planned. They sang beautifully, like angels,” Ramphora told the publication.

Naicker’s accomplices not only sang like canaries, but have now turned state witnesses, and the police are saying only a court can determine what will happen to them.

Ekurhuleni metro media relations manager Themba Gadebe told the publication it would be inappropriate to comment on what would happen to Naicker, as the municipality had to follow due process.

Warwick Bloom, of Hollard, is reported as having told the publication: “Roughly 5% of the personal claims investigated last year were to be fraudulent.”