Telecom fraud case delayed

A SECOND court appearance by a former Telecom Namibia manager and a Windhoek businessman accused of involvement in a fraud scheme claimed to have cost the parastatal more than a million Namibia dollars resulted in little more than a further postponement yesterday.

Businessman Heinz Dresselhaus (51) and a former General Manager for Consumer Services at Telecom, James Camm (50), now have to return to the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on Friday next week. Magistrate Tuyenikelao Haikango was asked to postpone the case to give the Office of the Prosecutor General more time to decide on the charges they will be prosecuted on and in which court they will be arraigned.They were charged with fraud on June 10.That was after a former Procurement Manager at Telecom, Ivan Ganes, had told the High Court that he, Camm, Dresselhaus and a business partner of Dresselhaus, Etienne Weakley, had taken part in a fraudulent scheme in which they manipulated the sale of scrap copper wire by Telecom so that Dresselhaus and Weakley’s firm, Dresselhaus Scrap CC, would pay Telecom a lower amount for the copper than had been agreed in a contract between Telecom and Dresselhaus Scrap.The differences between these amounts constituted part of the four men’s earnings from the scheme, Ganes claimed.Another part of their earnings came from a second leg of the scheme, in terms of which Dresselhaus Scrap billed Telecom Namibia for the labour costs of removing old copper wire from Telecom’s obsolete phone line network, whereas there had been no deal that Dresselhaus Scrap would be able to recoup these labour costs from Telecom, Ganes also claimed.Ganes, who pleaded guilty to 13 counts of fraud in the case in which Weakley had also been charged, has since been sentenced to an effective two years’ imprisonment and a fine of N$100 000.Weakley’s trial is set to start in the High Court on September 5.He remains free on bail, as do Dresselhaus and Camm.Magistrate Tuyenikelao Haikango was asked to postpone the case to give the Office of the Prosecutor General more time to decide on the charges they will be prosecuted on and in which court they will be arraigned.They were charged with fraud on June 10.That was after a former Procurement Manager at Telecom, Ivan Ganes, had told the High Court that he, Camm, Dresselhaus and a business partner of Dresselhaus, Etienne Weakley, had taken part in a fraudulent scheme in which they manipulated the sale of scrap copper wire by Telecom so that Dresselhaus and Weakley’s firm, Dresselhaus Scrap CC, would pay Telecom a lower amount for the copper than had been agreed in a contract between Telecom and Dresselhaus Scrap.The differences between these amounts constituted part of the four men’s earnings from the scheme, Ganes claimed.Another part of their earnings came from a second leg of the scheme, in terms of which Dresselhaus Scrap billed Telecom Namibia for the labour costs of removing old copper wire from Telecom’s obsolete phone line network, whereas there had been no deal that Dresselhaus Scrap would be able to recoup these labour costs from Telecom, Ganes also claimed.Ganes, who pleaded guilty to 13 counts of fraud in the case in which Weakley had also been charged, has since been sentenced to an effective two years’ imprisonment and a fine of N$100 000.Weakley’s trial is set to start in the High Court on September 5.He remains free on bail, as do Dresselhaus and Camm.