EASTERN CAPE – The Gqeberha Specialised Commercial Crime Court released Liesel Maria Wolmarans (44) on R2000 bail for numerous counts of raud on 29 July 2022. This is subsequent to her arrest by the Gqeberha based Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team of the Hawks on the early morning hours.
It is alleged that Wolmarans during the period between March 2011 and May 2021, in her capacity as a Senior Billing Clerk, was responsible for the processing of electricity meter readings on the billing system. The latter readings were captured by route contractors at customer sites on a handheld device and forwarded to her electronically. Wolmarans then had to bill the customers for the electricity usage in accordance to the readings.
Wolmarans was however alleged to have made a misrepresentation to Eskom in that she unlawfully and intentionally processed false readings on the billing system for which the customers were billed for a lower electricity usage. The matter was reported to the Hawks for probing hence the arrest of Wolmarans on 29 July 2022.The investigations revealed that Wolmarans prejudiced Eskom cash to the value of more than R11 million.
Wolmarans was released on R2000 bail and the matter was remanded to 30 August 2022 for copies of the docket and merit consultation.
