THE man who hacked the education department’s bank account 13 years ago has been convicted of theft.
Bruce Owen (44) was convicted and sentenced on Wednesday, 23 August.
According to Hawks spokesman Warrant Officer Ndiphiwe Mhlakuvana, on 30 April 2010, the department discovered 14 fraudulent transactions of payments that were purportedly made to four different schools in the province.
“The discrepancies were identified when complaints were lodged by the rightful beneficiaries who did not receive their funds and the matter was reported to the Hawks for investigation,” said Mhlakuvana.
The Hawks investigation revealed that Owen hacked into the Basic Accounting System (BAS) system of the department, accessed information and lodged unauthorised payments into his bank accounts.
ALSO READ: Stevovo Column: Mums, babies aren't TRASH!
“This resulted in the financial loss of more than R600 000 from the government department. Owen illegally obtained information through the use of a keylogger device designed to capture all the keystrokes done on the computer keyboard.
"Once the information was captured by the keylogger it was automatically saved on a memory device and was later used to hack into the system, utilising login credentials of the officials,” Mhlakuvana said.
Mhlakuvana said that in February 2020, Owen was traced and arrested in Gauteng and after four months of being remanded in custody, he was ultimately released on bail.
He subsequently made several court appearances before he was sentenced to three years direct imprisonment with no option of a fine on 23 August.
The Provincial Head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, Major-General Mboiki Obed Ngwenya, applauded the joint team for the sterling job in making sure that the accused received a proportional sentence, giving a warning to those who think they could steal from the taxpayers' purse.
