Businesswoman and convicted fraudster Shauwn Mpisane’s former bookkeeper has pleaded guilty to forgery and contravening sections of the Value Added Tax Act, admitting that he submitted false tax invoices to the SA Revenue Services while working for her.
Kishal Reddy, 29, pleaded guilty in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Friday to both the charges, which took place during the periods March 2007 to February 2008 and January 2009 and April 2010.
Reddy’s former boss, Mpisane, also known as Mabongi Flora-Junior, is currently out on R50 000 bail and is facing tax fraud, evasion and VAT forgery charges totalling R2.4 million.
Reddy’s guilty plea relates to the same matter where Mpisane and her company, Zikhulise Cleaning, Maintenance and Transport CC, are accused of knowingly under-declaring invoices that totalled more than R2.2m.
It is also alleged that the company submitted false tax invoices amounting to more than R219 000.
According to Reddy’s plea, he had prepared financial statements for Zikhulise while serving his articles for SAB & T Incorporated and continued to do so when he was employed by Zikhulise.
He started working for Zikhulise in October 2008.
“Shauwn instructed me to create tax invoices to reflect payments that she allegedly made to (her) suppliers. When she told me to create these invoices I told her that it would constitute forgery, whereupon she told me that I don’t have to worry about it as it would be her taking the risk.
“At this stage I didn’t believe that I would be implicated in the future by Shauwn in the forgery of these tax invoices,” read his plea.
He said Mpisane had told him that she had hired him to “save her money and not for him to pay out money to Sars”.
Reddy said Mpisane had wanted to create forged tax invoices to decrease her income tax payable, as it would in turn decrease Zikhulise’s income tax and she would be able to claim the VAT input.
During this time, his wife had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and had not been expected to live longer than a year. He said he had been under financial strain with all the medical expenses and could not afford to lose his job.
“Shauwn was very aware of these facts and I am still of the opinion that Shauwn used my vulnerability at this stage in my life to her benefit,” he said.
Reddy claimed he had been given legitimate copies of tax invoices issued to Zikhulise by suppliers.
He had been instructed by Mpisane to use these as a template to create forged tax invoices, Reddy said.
“For each month and for each supplier, Shauwn would allocate an amount,” he said.
Reddy had arranged with a friend whose father owned a printing business in Nandi Drive, Durban, to print these invoices without the father’s knowledge.
Reddy said Mpisane had paid amounts ranging from R10 000 to R13 000 for these forged invoices and later allegedly wrote a R16 000 cheque for payment, which the bank could not cash as they could not reach Mpisane for confirmation. Following this non-payment, the printers had refused to do any further work for her.
In January last year, Reddy said, he had started to look for employment elsewhere as he had not received a salary or bonus from Zikhulise for December 2009.
In May 2010 he resigned when his father helped him get a job as a group manager for Midas in Port Shepstone.
He also started his own accounting practice in Durban.
Last month Reddy had received a call from a Captain Kenny of the Serious Economic Offences Unit, the plea said.
This is the same unit that arranged for a search and seizure warrant for Mpisane’s two properties in La Lucia and Umhlanga. Reddy had been asked to report to the Point police dtation so that he could attend court that morning.
He had then met specialist tax prosecutor Meera Naidu and Kenny with Reddy’s attorney, Larry Seethal, on June 3, where he had “come clean” about his involvement and role in the matter of Mpisane and her company.
He pleaded guilty and agreed to co-operate with the state and police investigation.
He was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment or a R30 000 fine.
[email protected] - Daily News