Cape Town - A CONVICTED fraudster who was a member of a syndicate that devised a scheme to defraud the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan municipality (NMMM) of R19million had her attempt to overturn the imprisonment sentence dismissed.
Pumla Ntozini, 60, was sentenced in the Regional Court in Port Elizabeth to 15 years’ imprisonment for fraud and five years’ imprisonment for contravening the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.
According to court papers, a syndicate installed computer software onto NMMM’s Corporate Access Terminal System, designed to record keystrokes and email the keystrokes to a syndicate member’s email address, without the knowledge of the user of NMMM’s system.
Through this installation, which was performed by one of Ntozini’s co-accused, who was employed by NMMM, the syndicate targeted and accessed NMMM’s Standard Bank account, and made payments to 61 bank accounts sourced by the syndicate and accessible to the members.
The various amounts paid to the bank accounts amounted to R19 722 000.
Fortunately, the bulk of the amount was recovered because the various bank accounts were frozen before the money could be accessed.
Just under R1.8million was not recovered, the court found.
NMMM also had to engage the services of an auditing firm, at a cost of R1.3million, to assist with the cyber investigation.
Ntozini’s husband testified in mitigation on her behalf. He said he suffered from ill-health, including diabetes and poor eyesight, and without his wife he would not be able to take care of himself.
He testified that Ntozini’s daughter, the mother of a hyperactive child, was staying with him, although that was not intended to be a permanent arrangement.
In Ntozini’s appeal to the High Court in Grahamstown, it was submitted that the magistrate paid insufficient regard to Ntozini’s personal circumstances and over-emphasised the seriousness of the offences and the interests of society.
But High Court Judge Judith Roberson on Tuesday found the magistrate’s decision was correct.
“It is clear that he did consider the appellant’s age and the evidence of her responsibilities, which would have been a reference at least to her husband, if not her grandchild. Against these circumstances, he had to balance the very large weight of the seriousness of the crimes and the effect on society,” Roberson said.
“An enormous sum of money was involved. If the operation had been carried through, the members of the syndicate would have become very wealthy. These were public funds.
“Their loss could have had a severe impact on NMMM’s ability to function and serve its constituents, with widespread negative consequences.
“In my view the magistrate struck the correct balance between the relevant factors and the effective sentence was entirely proportionate,” said Judge Roberson.