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Cape Town - A Cape Town woman was jailed for 12 years on Tuesday for defrauding the SA Revenue Service (Sars) of more than R6m.
Former senior Sars official Bronwyn Tanya Masters Goldman and her husband Neil Goldman pleaded guilty and were handed their sentence in terms of an agreement in the Bellville Regional Court.
Bronwyn was sentenced to 15 years, of which three years were suspended for a period of five years, on condition she not be convicted of fraud, forgery, or uttering.
Her husband was sentenced to an effective eight years imprisonment, wholly suspended for five years.
He would undergo 36 months of correctional supervision.
The court took into account their willingness to plead guilty and the fact they had four small children.
The couple admitted guilt on over 200 charges including fraud and forgery.
Bronwyn Goldman worked for Sars as an audit team leader and was trained to use programmes necessary for the administration of the VAT system.
Her responsibility was to allocate, oversee and authorise VAT refunds to vendors.
She manipulated the system and paid a total of around R6.08m into her husband's bank account, under the guise of VAT refunds for his panelbeating business.
Sars only managed to recoup a total of R1.947m of the money taken, according to National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila.
The court heard the couple sold their house to pay back Sars and that the sheriff of the court sold off the panelbeating business.
