Woman jailed for fraud amounting to R16m

CINDY Saunders, who worked as an export controller at RenCorp cc, trading as Nicholson Shipping, a company in Pinetown, was sentenced by the Durban Specialised Commercial Crimes Court to an effective nine years imprisonment.

Saunders pleaded guilty to 45 counts of fraud, amounting to approximately R16m.

According to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson, Natasha Ramkisson-Kara, Saunders admitted to having a gambling addiction and said that she decided to defraud her employer and another company, SK Boyz (Pty) Ltd, to pay off her gambling debt.

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“To this end, she enlisted the help of her co-accused, Terrance Gonasekharan Raju and his companies, South Continent Logistics and Troy Trans.

As part of the fraudulent scheme, the NPA said Saunders generated false invoices. Saunders said in her plea that at the time of the commission of the offences, she knew that her actions were fraudulent and solely for her personal financial gain and that of her co-accused.

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“She and her co-accused also defrauded SK Boyz by telling them that she needed a business partner to assist with financing the purchase of shipping containers from South Continent, promising them profits when the containers were sold. She admitted to doing this, with full knowledge that SK Boyz would not be paid back the money,” said Ramkisson-Kara.

In presenting the state’s case, Senior State Advocate Danette Cole led the evidence of the complainant as well as an accountant, who outlined the extent of the damage that the fraud had caused to the businesses.

“In sentencing Saunders, the court took into consideration that she had a gambling addiction and had sought counselling to rectify the problem and improve her life. For counts 12 to 36 of the fraud, where Nicholson Shipping is the complainant, Saunders was sentenced to six years imprisonment.

“For counts 37 to 54, she was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment, of which three years is suspended for five years on condition that she is not convicted of fraud or theft during the period of suspension – resulting in nine years imprisonment.”

She added that for counts 133 to 135, where SK Boyz is the complainant, she was sentenced to eight years imprisonment.

“The court ordered that the six years and eight years imprisonment run concurrently with the nine years imprisonment, thus resulting in the effective sentence,” said Ramkisson-Kara.

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