A 56-year-old Eastern Cape farmer, Johannes Conraard Muller, has been arrested after a decade-long investigation into an insurance fraud case. Muller is accused of deliberately setting his own grain harvester on fire to fraudulently claim R700,000 in insurance.
The arrest was made by the South African Police Service’s Provincial Commercial Crime Investigation Unit (CCIU) in the Thabo Mofutsanyana District after a thorough investigation into the suspicious insurance claim. The case dates back to 2016, when Muller allegedly destroyed his own grain harvester motor vehicle on his farm in Clocolan and filed a fraudulent claim with his insurance company, providing false information to support the loss.
The insurance company, misled by the fabricated details, approved and paid out the large sum of R700,000 to Muller. However, the suspicious payout remained under scrutiny for years, and after extensive investigations, the Bethlehem CCIU gathered enough evidence to charge Muller with fraud.
Muller was arrested and appeared before the Clocolan Magistrate’s Court on April 1. He was granted bail of R500, with his next court appearance scheduled for May 14.
