No jail for hairdresser in RAF fraud case
A young hairdresser who put in a fraudulent R720 000 claim against the Road Accident Fund, after tripping on a pavement brick, was handed a suspended prison sentence.
|||Cape Town – A young hairdresser who took a friend’s advice to put in a fraudulent R720 000 claim against the Road Accident Fund, after tripping on a pavement brick, was given a suspended prison sentence on Monday.
Xoliswa Hlahleni, 29, appeared in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Bellville, Cape Town, before magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg.
The proceedings took the form of a plea bargain, negotiated by legal aid lawyer Harley Cloete with prosecutor Juan Agulhas.
According to court papers, a friend gave her the idea of making a false claim.
She falsely claimed that she was knocked over by a car as a pedestrian, and even attached a medical report to verify her injuries.
The prosecutor said the RAF did not pay the claim, but stood to lose R720 000 had it done so.
She was sentenced to three years imprisonment, conditionally suspended for five, and declared unfit to possess a firearm.
African News Agency