Five suspects in court for attempting to con EP-Rugby Union

Three Eastern Province (EP) Rugby Union employees along with two others appeared at the Port Elizabeth Magistrates Court shortly after their arrest by the Hawks Serious Commercial Crime Investigating team today.

They allegedly conspired to defraud the EP Rugby Union by submitting two fraudulent invoices to the value of R457000.00, for payments of services which were never rendered to the Union. John Scheepers (42), Eldridge Februarie (48) and Bantwini Matika (51) were employees in the Union whilst Johny Oersen (37) Xoliswa Mbengu (48) were the alleged clients who submitted fictitious invoices for the work that was never rendered.

Preliminary investigation by the Hawks revealed that one of the invoices was claiming for Sports fields in Cradock and the other one for catering services for games that never took place. Various irregularities on the invoices were picked up upon scrutiny as there were no supporting documents submitted with these invoices which dated back in December 2019.

The suspects are expected to be back in the same court on 08 March 2021.