A Toyota Land Cruiser valued at more than R1.2 million found its way into the hands of the general of a rebel army in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) after a motor dealer’s employee falsified and manipulated documents, which included having her daughter digitally remove the police certification stamps from Identity Documents.
This is according to a decision by the Financial Services Tribunal (FST), which dismissed the former employee’s application to have her debarment by the FSCA reconsidered.
“SA” was employed by McCarthy (Pty) Ltd as a representative between March 2017 and July 2019. Her duties included conducting a due diligence, in terms of the Financial Intelligence Act, for McCarthy and Toyota Financial Services.
In October 2017, SA was emailed a car finance application, in the name of “L” close corporation, from “ZP”, a third party not linked to the CC or McCarthy. The application was for the purchase of a 2017 Toyota Land Cruiser valued at R1 294 491.60.
ZP emailed the CC’s signed resolution, together with copies of the CC members’ IDs that had been certified by the South African Police Service. The resolution authorised Mr L to sign the finance agreement on behalf of the three-member CC.
SA emailed Mrs L’s and Mr L Junior’s surety documents to ZP for signature and instructed him to take pictures of the Ls’ IDs and forward them to her. SA filled in the names, ID numbers and addresses of the sureties.
ZP emailed the signed surety documents, without witness signatures, along with the Ls’ SAPS-certified ID copies, to SA.
It was alleged that SA then:
- Emailed the Ls’ SAPS-certified ID copies to her daughter, who is a graphic designer, for her to remove the SAPS certification stamps so that SA could affix her own certification stamps, as if she had seen the original IDs and the Ls.
- Signed Mrs L’s and Mr L Junior’s surety documents as a witness, although neither had signed the documents in her presence.
- Made it appear in the finance application form that Mr L Senior had been to the dealership at some stage and had signed the surety forms, whereas this was not the case.
All three members of the CC denied that they were in Durban when the surety documents were signed, or that they signed them. They said their signatures were forged.
A sale agreement was concluded, and Wesbank financed the vehicle. The vehicle was not delivered to the CC but was taken outside South Africa. It was later traced to the DRC, where it was used by a general of a rebel group, the FST said.
Wesbank requested a full refund of the transaction from McCarthy, and it opened a case of fraud against SA.
In June 2020, Associated Compliance Motors (Pty) Ltd asked the FSCA to consider debarring SA in terms of section 153(1)(a) of the Financial Sector Regulation Act.
In July last year, the FSCA debarred SA for five years on the grounds that she no longer complied with section 8A of the FAIS Act, read with the Fit and Proper Requirements, particularly the qualities of honesty and integrity.
‘Admission should be excluded’
SA filed her application for reconsideration on a number of grounds, including procedural irregularities. The FST found these to be without merit.
Among other things, SA said her admission during an interrogation that she had sent the SAPS-certified IDs to her daughter for her to remove the SAPS certification stamps should have been excluded because she had not been advised that whatever said she said might be used as evidence against her.
The FST said even if it disregarded SA’s admission during the interrogation, the email evidence confirmed that she sent the Ls’ IDs to her daughter. Furthermore, SA did not allege that the admission was not made voluntarily and without undue influence.
The FST said it was clear from the evidence before it that SA certified the Ls’ ID documents by fraudulently falsifying, modifying or manipulating them without seeing the original ID documents. She also witnessed the surety documents without seeing them signed.
It said SA’s conduct was “not only dishonest but amounted to fraud”. The tribunal agreed with the FSCA that SA failed to render financial services honestly and in the interest of her clients and the integrity of the financial services industry.
