A former senior bank employee has been jailed for 15 years after defrauding her employer of millions of rands and blaming her actions on a dating scam.
Fraudster Darlene Harrison, 49, was sentenced to 15 years of direct imprisonment following her conviction on 16 counts of fraud, amounting to over R5.2 million at the Cape Town Regional Court this week.
According to Harrison she was duped into transferring monies to bank accounts to assist “the boyfriend” in his supposed business venture.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson, Eric Ntabazalila, said while employed at Nedbank as an administrator in the Operations Centre and Investments Management, Harrison’s responsibilities included capturing, releasing, and processing investment funds on instructions of clients who held investment savings accounts with the bank.
“Between 26 May 2015 and 02 November 2015, she fraudulently processed and released funds from investment accounts to external third-party bank accounts of people or beneficiaries who did not hold investment savings accounts with the bank. These transactions were real-time transactions and were payable immediately.
“On November 2, 2015, she processed two consecutive transactions of R1.2 million. This immediately raised suspicion with the bank’s fraud department. A senior member of the branch where she worked was asked to review the transactions.
“An investigation that followed revealed that several other fraudulent transactions had occurred between 26 May 2015 and 2 November 2015. An extensive internal Nedbank investigation, which involved interviewing several staff members who worked hand in hand with the accused, further revealed that she was the one who had committed the fraud by transferring investment monies into third-party external bank accounts of people or persons who did not hold investment monies with Nedbank and who were not entitled to the monies. The person at the time she believed to have been her boyfriend,” said Ntabazalila.
State advocate Andy Heyns told the court that during an interview with the bank’s investigators, the accused made several admissions including admitting that she processed the fraudulent transactions and processed fraudulent documents to support those transactions.
In the process, she used her colleagues to approve these fraudulent documents, while knowing that they were forged.
“She admitted that these transactions were processed to these accounts for the benefit of a person who, at the time, she believed to be her boyfriend and from whom she would ultimately also benefit. However, during the trial, Harrison pleaded not guilty to all counts.
“Advocate Heyns called several witnesses, who included her colleagues and the bank’s fraud investigators, as she made no formal admissions and challenged the State to prove its case. She further challenged the confession she made to Nedbank fraud investigators.
“A trial within a trial was held wherein the court decided that the confession made to Nedbank fraud investigators was admissible,” said Ntabazalila.
Harrison did not testify in her defence or mitigation of sentence and in determining her guilt, the court considered all the oral evidence presented and in addition accepted the confession made by the accused in the form of a statement in her handwriting and recorded on video to Nedbank fraud investigators.
Cape Times