| Company and its Director sentenced for SARS VAT fraud | |
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| Date Published: | 2023/11/11 |
| Description Details: | |
Media Statement EASTERN CAPE –The East London based Serious Commercial Crime Investigation (SCCI) team of the Hawks together with National Prosecution Authority (NPA) as well as South African Revenue Services (SARS) ensured that Phumla Gwanya (38) and Ziyaduma Trading CC were convicted and sentenced by East London Regional court 5 on 10 November 2023 for fraud and contravention of Income Tax Act. Gwanya is a sole director of Ziyaduma Trading CC. The director Gwanya and her business entity Ziyaduma were arrested by the East London SCCI team of the Hawks on 14 May 2021. The charges against Lusanda Mpetshwa (34) the bookkeeper were virtually withdrawn. In May 2014 to March 2017, Gwanya unlawfully, falsely and intentionally submitted fraudulent documents of 201 Value Added (VAT) Tax returns to SARS on behalf of her company. Gwanya submitted the vat returns to SARS through company’s e-filing system. Gwanya declared zero income returns as she denied to have been in business during the period, while the company had supplied services to a number of Municipalities in the Eastern Cape Province for which the company was paid huge amounts of money in return for their services. The claim was processed accordingly and the company received vat payment returns to an amount of over R600 000. During auditing, SARS identified discrepancies on company’s vat returns. The matter was reported to East London SCCI of the Hawks for probing. The investigations confirmed that SARS was actually prejudiced cash to an amount of over R600 000. Gwanya and Mpetshwa was thus arrested by the team of investigators of the Hawks on 14 May 2021 and appeared at court on the same day, and were later released on warning. As charges against Mpetshwa the bookkeeper were withdrawn, Gwanya made several court appearances until she and her company were convicted and sentenced by East London Regional court 5 on 10 November 2023. Gwanya and her company were sentenced to a fine of R50 000 each or undergo five (5) years imprisonment. In addition, both the accused were sentenced to five (5) years direct imprisonment wholly suspended for three (3) years on condition that the accused is not convicted on fraud tax invasion during the period of suspension. Furthermore, both accused were ordered to repay all the money that was prejudiced from SARS in monthly instalments of R22 506.61. The Provincial Head of the Hawks, Major General Mboiki Obed Ngwenya much-admired the incredible efforts by the joint team in ensuring that the accused person and her company get the deserving sentence. That sends a robust message to those that are busy milking the country’s revenue. Ends
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