Dawn Celeste Pieterson (46) was sentenced by the Calvinia Specialised Commercial Crime Court on Monday, 26 January 2026. She was convicted by the same court on Wednesday, 1 October 2025.
Pieterson was found guilty on all charges: nine counts of fraud and two counts of contravening Section 31(1)(d) of the Births and Deaths Registration Act 51 of 1992.
The crimes occurred between February 2019 and September 2022 while Pieterson was a Department of Home Affairs employee in Calvinia. In her role, she had access to the national population register.
Her method was to take out funeral cover policies with insurance companies and nominate herself as beneficiary. She then falsified official BI-1663 death notices to register the living policyholders as deceased in the national population register.
This caused significant problems for the individuals falsely declared dead. Four insurance companies suffered a combined loss of R334,634 from the fraudulent claims.
SENTENCE:
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Fraud: 5 years direct imprisonment.
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Contravention of Births and Deaths Registration Act: 12 months imprisonment, wholly suspended for 5 years.
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The court also declared her unfit to possess a firearm.