Cape Town - A suspected fraudster is expected to appear in the specialised commercial crimes court in Bellville on Thursday, facing more than 430 fraud charges relating to more than R1.9 million involving three companies.
Hawks spokesperson Zinzi Hani said the 39-year-old also faces another charge of theft and two for contravening the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act.
“This follows allegations of the suspect defrauding three companies of over R1.9m. She worked as a finance and practice manager and her duties included attending to the banking and bookkeeping functions of the said entities.
“An in-depth investigation by the Hawks revealed that the funds were allegedly transferred from the three companies' bank accounts to the suspect's account. Fabricated invoices were created in order to dishonestly divert funds into her personal account,” Hani said.
The matter was reported to authorities after uncovering “discrepancies”and referred to the Hawks for further probing resulting in the Hawks’ statutory and common law team serving the suspect with summons to appear in court .
Meanwhile in a separate matter, Estelle Shereldine Burgess, 63, was sentenced to 15 years by the Gqeberha specialised commercial crime court yesterday, for many counts of fraud.
Hawks spokesperson, Yolisa Mgolodela, said Burgess “misappropriated funds of the company” in her capacity as creditor’s clerk at Eastern Cape Training Centre Gqeberha, between 2004 and 2014.
“She prepared payments to the creditors and submitted such invoices to the financial manager for payment on their Standard Bank system. Burgess purported that the banking details were that of the creditors, however the payments were transferred into various bank accounts of which she was the beneficiary amounting to R13.4m,” Mgolodela said.
Cape Times