The penalty for a crime is not a handshake. This much became clear to a Durban couple recently as they were given varying jail terms for defrauding the Blind and Deaf Society of millions of rands.
Ruvanya Ramiah and her husband and her husband Ayush Rambally pleaded guilty to theft charges in June 2022 and were given jail terms of 15 and eight years respectively.
Ramiah, who worked with the society as a finance officer between March 2012 to February 2019, pleaded guilty to 354 counts of fraud, which amounts to about R12.6 million. In contrast, her husband pleaded guilty to 79 counts, which amounts to about R1.7 million.
Ramiah not only admitted to the charges against her but also gave some details on how she defrauded the society. According to her, she committed the crime by paying herself inflated salaries, usually multiple times in the same month.
Her husband Rambally, who was neither an employee nor a creditor of the society, also admitted to fraud charges, noting that although he wasn’t entitled to the money, he took it anyway – out of greed.
The news of the heist and the conviction of the couple left some social media users incredulous, with some stating it takes great wickedness to rob a society aiding the disabled.
