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Friday, December 15, 2006 - Web posted at 7:25:38 GMT Key SSC suspect gets bail WERNER MENGESTHE main figure in an alleged fraud scheme through which the Social Security Commission is claimed to have lost some N$344 000 was granted bail of N$15 000 yesterday. |
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Former SSC employee Maxwell Spanneberg had been kept in Police custody since his arrest on charges of fraud and corruption on November 12. Yesterday, a bail application by Spanneberg that started in the Windhoek Magistrate's Court in Katutura two weeks ago ended with Magistrate Clement Daniels granting Spanneberg bail of N$15 000, with a list of conditions attached. Spanneberg (29) will have to surrender his passport and any other travel documents to the Police officer investigating the case in which he and 54 other people have so far been charged. He will not be allowed to leave the district of Windhoek without the investigator's permission, and he may not contact any of his co-accused, any SSC employees or any person who might be a potential witness in his case, and may not enter any SSC premises, the Magistrate ordered. He also in effect placed Spanneberg under night-time house arrest by ordering that he may not leave the house where he stays in Otjomuise in Windhoek between 19h00 and 05h00 each night. Spanneberg must further report to the Police at Otjomuise twice each day - at 06h00 and again at 18h00, Magistrate Daniels directed. According to the SSC, Spanneberg was employed in the Registry Division at the SSC's head office in Windhoek. It is suspected that he used the computer passwords of other staff members to lodge, process and authorise fraudulent sick leave claims. Spanneberg was suspended from his post on August 30, when a full-scale investigation of his alleged activities was ordered. He was dismissed on November 2, after he had been found guilty of misconduct following a disciplinary hearing, the SSC stated in mid-November, after the first arrests in the case against Spanneberg and his fellow suspects had been made. The number of people charged with Spanneberg in the case grew to 55 on Wednesday, when the 54th and 55th suspects, Windhoek residents Gehas Ndalipale (42) and Faizel Adrie Ockhuizen (23), were added to the case and granted bail of N$2 000 each. Erna van der Merwe, the Deputy Director of the Anti-Corruption Commission, which has been investigating the case against Spanneberg and the other suspects, told The Namibian late last week that it is suspected that the SSC was defrauded of some N$344 000 as a result of the alleged scam. In his bail ruling yesterday, Magistrate Daniels said there was no concrete evidence before the court to support the prosecution's arguments that there was a risk that Spanneberg would abscond if he was released on bail. Fears that Spanneberg might interfere with the investigation of the case could be adequately addressed by attaching conditions to his release on bail, the Magistrate also said. He commented that fraud and corruption are serious offences that might warrant stiff sentences - but at the same time, it was not the function of the court at this stage to decide whether Spanneberg was guilty or not. The public was generally appalled by crimes that involve corruption and the theft of public funds, and courts should take account of that, he said. At the same time, though, the court should also take into account the ultimate public document in Namibia, the country's Constitution, and the protection that it gives to rights like the right to liberty and to receive a fair trial, Magistrate Daniels said. Jan Wessels of Stern & Barnard represented Spanneberg during the bail hearing. Public Prosecutor OJ Lino appeared for the State. |
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