A Paarl woman who was convicted of defrauding her boss has been ordered by the courts to pay them back over R500,000 within seven days.
Erika Du Plessis was convicted and sentenced in the Paarl Regional Court on Wednesday.
According to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Du Plessis was convicted on 45 counts of fraud, 19 counts of forgery, 19 counts of uttering, and a count of money laundering.
Regional NPA spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said Du Plessis, a mother of three, worked as an administration clerk for HJEK Transport CC between August 30, 2012 and June 28, 2016.
“Her tasks included clerical and administrative work, bookkeeping, and the preparation of e-filing payments to the South African Revenue Service (Sars) on behalf of HJEK Transport CC.”
The company was owned by Erenst Lerm Koegelenberg, and Nihan Koegelenberg owned the company.
“In a plea and sentencing agreement, Du Plessis confessed that she caused Koegelenberg to make regular VAT payments to Sars, which he assumed were correct.
“I manipulated the process in which HJEK Transport CC pays VAT to Sars by replacing the tax reference numbers on the electronic payment functionality when Mr Koegelenberg had to make VAT payments to Sars.
“I replaced the payment tax reference numbers when loading the payments electronically for Koegelenberg to authorise with my income tax reference number.”
Koegelenberg made payments without knowing that they had her income tax reference number instead of the company’s VAT number.
“After Koegelenberg had made the payments, the accused would phone or inform Sars in writing that the payments into her income tax account were made in error and request a refund.
“The revenue service would pay the refunds into her bank account.”
Du Plessis pleaded guilty to forging Koegelenberg’s signature when making the requests.
“I knew that Sars does not refund such incorrect payments back into the depositor’s account, but to the account as per the information on the Sars tax account profile.
“The bank account details belonged to me, resulting in the requested refunds being paid into my bank account.”
Du Plessis admitted that the amount paid into her personal account was not due to her.
The NPA said she was caught out after Sars detected her crimes and refused to pay her last request of R98,432. The revenue service had already paid her R547,962.
Ntabazalila said the court sentenced Du Plessis to seven years imprisonment, which is wholly suspended for five years, on condition that she pays back R547,962 within seven days after the sentence is imposed.
On the money laundering charge, Du Plessis was sentenced to four years of imprisonment, wholly suspended for five years, on the condition that she serve 36 months of correctional supervision.
“She must also serve house arrest for the duration of the 36 months of correctional supervision and perform four hours of community service per week for the full duration of the sentence.”
IOL News