Kamini Padayachee
A constable’s suspicions, which led to the police unravelling an elaborate insurance fraud plot, ended with multiple convictions for the scam artists in the Durban High Court yesterday.
The mastermind behind the scam, Maryanne Dimba, and her co-accused, Linda Mdluli and Sibusiso Buthelezi, were found guilty of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, fraud and racketeering by Judge Fikile Mokgohloa yesterday.
They were charged with stealing identity books, killing people, planting information on their corpses and then cashing in on life insurance policies.
Of the 49 counts on the charge sheet, the trio were all convicted of one count of murder in relation to the killing of a man in Verulam in October 2007.
Dimba was also found guilty of 28 fraud charges, three counts of racketeering, theft and two charges of acquiring a body for the purposes of false identification.
Mdluli and Buthelezi were found guilty of nine and 11 fraud charges respectively,
Both were also convicted on one count of theft, two charges of racketeering and a charge of conspiracy to commit murder.
Hawks investigator Captain Danie Reyneke said yesterday the intensive investigation began in 2007 after the Verulam murder set off alarm bells for police official Constable Nokuthula Nzimande.
In her judgment, the judge mentioned that it was Nzimande who found a piece of paper with Dimba’s cellphone number on the deceased’s body. Nzimande then realised something was amiss when she located the person that Mdluli had claimed was the deceased.
Nzimande reported her suspicions to her superior who referred the case to the Hawks.
Reyneke said he had believed it was “just another murder case” and only realised the extent of the investigation when they arrested Dimba and found dozens of identity books, insurance policy forms and death certificates in her Joburg home.
He said the case had meant “hours and hours of investigating” and the docket consisted of “41 Lever-arch files”.
Judge Mokgohloa said while they had been charged with eight murders she could only find they had been directly involved in one pre-meditated killing and, in the other seven counts, conspiracy to commit murder was the appropriate charge.
On the racketeering counts, the judge said Dimba had been “planner and co-ordinator”.
“Dimba was the custodian of the scheme. She controlled the bank accounts that she set up for the policy holders and claimants. She was in possession of all the identity books and insurance policy forms. Mdluli and Buthelezi took instructions from her and identified the bodies.
“They also helped her to kill.”
She added that Dimba’s “enterprise” had carried out their affairs according to a pattern of operations.
“Funeral cover and life insurance was taken out using stolen identity books, they made sure there was an unnatural death so the maximum could be claimed. Each policy was taken out three months before the deaths and all the deceased were identified days after the murders.”
The case was adjourned to April 30.
