George bookkeeper sentenced to 8 years for R7.6m theft

A 56-year-old Western Cape bookkeeper has been sentenced to eight years in prison for stealing over R7.6 million from a company that she worked for.

Gillian Mary Wileman was responsible for administering payments to creditors and suppliers, and capturing bank statement transactions of Ideal Lighting in George.

233 counts of fraud

Hawks spokesperson Zinzi Hani said in a statement on Monday that Wileman was sentenced by the George Regional Court to 233 counts of fraud, alternatively theft, on Friday, 12 May 2023.

“The accused had access to the preparation of payments needed to be made from Ideal Lighting to various creditors.

“The Hawks investigation successfully proved in court that she diverted payments into her account for personal gain, instead of paying money from the business to the creditors of Ideal Lighting between 29 January 2016 to 31 December 2020,” said Hani.

Investigations also revealed that the accused concealed the movement of the said funds.

Hani stated that the matter was then reported to the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation for further investigation and later led to her being summoned to appear in court on 25 November 2022.

Sentencing

“Wileman was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment of which 6 years is suspended for 5 years.  Effectively, Wileman will serve eight 8 years direct imprisonment.”

Meanwhile, provincial head of the Western Cape, Major General Mathipa Makgato has welcomed the sentence and commended the team for their work and using their investigation skills which led to the arrest and conviction of the accused.

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Separate incident

In March, a contracted Eskom employee was arrested at the utility’s Matla Power Station for fraud and corruption worth millions of rand involving a bogus supplier.

The Eskom employee was handcuffed by the South African Police Services’ Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations (DPCI) at the time.

Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokoena said the arrest was in connection with “prior transgressions” committed while the suspect was employed by Eskom in the capacity of senior buyer at the Arnot power station in 2014.

“The arrest follows allegations that the supplier was awarded an order for the supply of bowl pumps and received a down payment of R14.7 million upfront without goods being delivered.

“Eskom had to place an urgent order for the material with another company, suffering financial loss as a consequence. An internal Eskom investigation found that the employee facilitated the payment without authorisation and resigned soon thereafter,” Moekoena said at the time.

Additional reporting by Faizel Patel.

READ MORE: Eskom employee arrested for fraud involving millions