Magrieta Stoffelina Maria Botha, a 55-year-old former magistrate, appeared in the Nelspruit Regional Court on Wednesday facing charges related to fraud amounting to about R5 million, Mpumalanga News reports.
Botha was arrested by members of the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation unit on May 25 last year. This follows investigations that uncovered a network of apparent fictitiously authorised garnishee orders from various magistrates’ offices, including Nelspruit, Barberton, Malelane, Kabokweni and Tonga.
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It is alleged that Botha forged signatures of unsuspecting victims on the order forms and submitted them to their employers, which resulted in money unduly accumulating in her trust account, where she allegedly used it for personal gain.
The case has been postponed to July 2. The former magistrate is to face charges of fraud, corruption, forgery and uttering. She has been released on a warning with strict conditions.
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