The Hawks have arrested seven members of the 10111 call centre in Hilton along with the head of a prominent private Midlands-based paramedic service on Thursday.
The seven were arrested for tipping off certain ambulance services and tow truck drivers of incidents in exchange for hundreds of thousands of rands.
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The head of the paramedic service could face more than 150 counts of fraud.
The Hawks later arrested one local tow truck operator and a KwaZulu-Natal EMRS paramedic.
This is reportedly part of an intensive two-year Hawks investigation.
The Witness reported that Hawks investigators had got permission to tap the personal mobile phones of implicated 10111 operators.
The investigators then discovered e-wallet payments allegedly made as kickbacks to the 10111 operators.
Each payment will count as one count of fraud, sources said.
“It is actually illegal for the 10111 officials to have cell phones in the control room,” a source said.
“They need to hand their cell phones in at the beginning of their shift,” the source said,
“The officials would receive a call from the public for an incident. Instead of following procedure and phoning the public emergency response, they would phone [those they were in cahoots with] from their private cell phones and only give information out on air to police afterwards.”
The suspects are expected to appear in court on Friday.