A 44-year-old man was convicted of theft after hacking into the Eastern Cape education department’s bank accounts and taking nearly R600,000.
Bruce Owen was convicted this week in the East London Specialised Commercial Crime Court and sentenced to three years in prison without the option of a fine.
According to the provincial Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (known as the Hawks), the theft occurred in April 2010.
“The department discovered 14 fraudulent transactions of payments that were purportedly made to four different schools in the province,” Hawks spokesperson Warrant Officer Ndiphiwe Mhlakuvana said.
“The discrepancies were identified when complaints were lodged by rightful beneficiaries who did not receive their funds and the matter was reported to the Hawks for investigation.”
According to him, Hawks investigations indicated that Owen hacked into the department’s Basic Accounting System (BAS) system, accessed information, and made unauthorized transfers into his bank accounts.
“As a result, the government department suffered a financial loss of more than R600,000.”
Mhlakuvana explained how he carried out the heist, saying Owen illegally got information by using a key logger device meant to collect every input made on the computer keyboard.
“Once the information was captured by the key logger it was automatically saved on a memory device and was later used to hack into the system, utilizing login credentials of the officials.”
Owen was only traced 10 years after the crime and arrested in February 2020 in Gauteng.
“After four months of being remanded in custody, he was released on bail. He subsequently made several court appearances before his conviction and sentencing,” said Mhlakuvana.
Major General Mboiki Obed Ngwenya, Provincial Head of the Hawks, praised the collaborative team for their efforts in ensuring that the accused received a proportionate sentence.
