3 years for N$321 000 insurance scam

A WARNING about the consequences of dishonesty and thievery that has often been issued by Namibia’s courts – and that has just as often fallen on deaf ears – was again voiced in the Windhoek Regional Court yesterday during the sentencing of a woman who admitted she defrauded Old Mutual Namibia of more than N$321 000.

The cautionary note about the inevitability of imprisonment that could be the fate of people who are caught stealing or committing fraud came from Magistrate Gert Retief when he sentenced former Old Mutual Namibia employee Abigail Koekemoer to an effective jail term of three years yesterday. The 34-year-old Koekemoer pleaded guilty in the Windhoek Regional Court to 69 counts of fraud on February 19.She admitted that for more than two years – from May 10 2002 to July 26 2004 – she defrauded Old Mutual Namibia, where she was employed at the time, on 69 occasions.In the process, she had N$321 675,55 of Old Mutual Namibia’s money paid into a bank account that belonged to her, she admitted.In a written plea explanation, Koekemoer told the Magistrate that she pretended to the company that two independent insurance agents were entitled to commission payments from Old Mutual Namibia.In reality, both those agents had died by the time she had commission payments in their names processed at Old Mutual, Koekemoer said.The supposed commissions were then paid into a bank account that actually belonged to herself, she stated.Recounting evidence by a clinical psychologist who had been consulted by Koekemoer since September 2004, defence lawyer Jan Wessels told the Magistrate before sentencing that Koekemoer had been in a destructive relationship with a man at the time that the 69 acts of fraud were committed.She was in that relationship after she had divorced the man that she married in her late teens.They had two children together – daughters now 17 and 15 years old – before they divorced in the late 1990s, married each other again within a year, and again divorced the next year, Wessels recounted.He said Koekemoer was trying to buy the love and affection of the man with whom she was in a relationship after finally separating from her husband, using the proceeds of her crimes in an effort to impress her partner.After she was caught out, Koekemoer paid a substantial amount of money back to Old Mutual, Wessels added.He told the Magistrate that a pension payout of close to N$85 000 that was due to Koekemoer was instead paid to Old Mutual, while 13 monthly payments of N$1 000 each and another one-off payment of N$20 000 were also made to the company.Magistrate Retief said he was taking into account that Koekemoer had repaid money to Old Mutual Namibia.He said he had considered her situation, but there was no way out of the dilemma she faced but to send her to jail.There could never be a good reason to steal, the Magistrate told Koekemoer.Whether an addiction to alcohol or an addiction to gambling, for example, was offered as an excuse for stealing, these just could not be accepted as a good enough reason for this sort of crime, he said.”There cannot be any good reason for any person to resort to dishonesty.That must be punished,” the Magistrate said.He sentenced Koekemoer to five years’ imprisonment, of which two years were suspended for five years on condition that Koekemoer is not convicted again of theft or fraud committed during the period of suspension.Public Prosecutor Karin Esterhuizen represented the State yesterday.The 34-year-old Koekemoer pleaded guilty in the Windhoek Regional Court to 69 counts of fraud on February 19. She admitted that for more than two years – from May 10 2002 to July 26 2004 – she defrauded Old Mutual Namibia, where she was employed at the time, on 69 occasions.In the process, she had N$321 675,55 of Old Mutual Namibia’s money paid into a bank account that belonged to her, she admitted.In a written plea explanation, Koekemoer told the Magistrate that she pretended to the company that two independent insurance agents were entitled to commission payments from Old Mutual Namibia.In reality, both those agents had died by the time she had commission payments in their names processed at Old Mutual, Koekemoer said.The supposed commissions were then paid into a bank account that actually belonged to herself, she stated.Recounting evidence by a clinical psychologist who had been consulted by Koekemoer since September 2004, defence lawyer Jan Wessels told the Magistrate before sentencing that Koekemoer had been in a destructive relationship with a man at the time that the 69 acts of fraud were committed.She was in that relationship after she had divorced the man that she married in her late teens.They had two children together – daughters now 17 and 15 years old – before they divorced in the late 1990s, married each other again within a year, and again divorced the next year, Wessels recounted.He said Koekemoer was trying to buy the love and affection of the man with whom she was in a relationship after finally separating from her husband, using the proceeds of her crimes in an effort to impress her partner.After she was caught out, Koekemoer paid a substantial amount of money back to Old Mutual, Wessels added.He told the Magistrate that a pension payout of close to N$85 000 that was due to Koekemoer was instead paid to Old Mutual, while 13 monthly payments of N$1 000 each and another one-off payment of N$20 000 were also made to the company.Magistrate Retief said he was taking into account that Koekemoer had repaid money to Old Mutual Namibia.He said he had considered her situation, but there was no way out of the dilemma she faced but to send her to jail.There could never be a good reason to steal, the Magistrate told Koekemoer.Whether an addiction to alcohol or an addiction to gambling, for example, was offered as an excuse for stealing, these just could not be accepted as a good enough reason for this sort of crime, he said.”There cannot be any good reason for any person to resort to dishonesty.That must be punished,” the Magistrate said.He sentenced Koekemoer to five years’ imprisonment, of which two years were suspended for five years on condition that Koekemoer is not convicted again of theft or fraud committed during the period of suspension.Public Prosecutor Karin Esterhuizen represented the State yesterday.