A finance clerk was sentenced to eight years in prison for using fraudulent invoices to trick Clicks Group into paying his company R4 million.
Themba Maneli, 28, was sentenced in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crimes Court to eight years of imprisonment after he created fake purchase orders that led to the company paying more than R4 million to his company.
Maneli, his girlfriend, Nanky Tozama Kanase, her company, Business Connectivity Solutions (Pty) Ltd, and his company, Maneli Enterprises (Pty) Ltd, were charged with six counts of fraud and two counts of money laundering.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) regional spokesperson, Eric Ntabazalila, said that Maneli was a finance clerk, and his responsibilities included creating purchase orders and processing monthly journals.
However, a debtor’s manager discovered suspicious entries in two of his ledger accounts.
Ntabazalila said the entries revealed that he created Business Connectivity Solutions on January 8, 2019, and six days later, he created six purchase orders with purchase order numbers where he claimed the Clicks Group owed over R4 million to his fake company.
“He loaded corresponding credit notes to fraudulently balance out scheduled payments, inducing Clicks Group to pay more than R4 million to his fake company,” Ntabazalila said.
Ntabazalila further added that Clicks Group forensic investigators confronted him and requested to interview him in connection with the suspicious fraud. On their way to the boardroom, carrying a black backpack, he asked to use the bathroom.
“The investigators insisted that he leave the backpack with them while they waited outside. He bolted out of the bathroom, fleeing the premises and leaving behind his backpack.
“They found his and his girlfriend’s identity documents, his driver’s licence, his bank cards, his company’s bank card, her bank card, a debit card with no name printed on it, and a memory flash disc with the words “Auditor General South Africa” printed on it.
“The flash disk contained information on his company’s registration and the six fraudulent invoices,” Ntabazalila said.
Ntabazalila said that a later investigation revealed that he transferred money between several bank accounts, including those of his girlfriend, the two companies, and another bank account.
“The court convicted Maneli on six counts of fraud and one count of money laundering. It acquitted Kanase and the two companies as it found that they were not parties to his crimes,” Ntabazalila said.
State advocate Siphokazi Makanda asked the court not to take the fraud and money laundering counts together for sentencing.
“The court sentenced Maneli to eight years of imprisonment for fraud and a year for money laundering. It ordered the sentences to run concurrently and declared him unfit to possess a firearm,” Ntabazalila said.
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