A former financial and admin assistant of a consulting company is appearing in the Alexandra Magistrates’ Court on charges of money theft and fraud.
The accused, who is a Zimbabwean national, was remanded in custody at her sixth appearance pending a statement from the company on her and from a child who handled the money which prompted the arrest.
Investigation revealed that she is an illegal immigrant and flight risk from the charge of fleecing the company of R100 000. A probe is also under way on an extra R500 000 that went missing from the company’s account it bits over a period of time.
ALSO READ: Members of the public selling or buying fraudulent matric certificates can be arrested
She was arrested after the Bryanston-based company’s chief executive officer who was sick and at home asked her to bring R170 000 from a safe whose combination numbers, to open it, were only known by her. She brought the money in two bags and handed them to the complainant’s child who placed the bags on a table. Time lapsed before the complainant counted and found only R70 000 in the bags. She contacted the accused at her Hillbrow residence about the R100000 shortfall and was told that it was all that was left in the safe.
The two arranged to meet at the office where they checked and found nothing in the safe. This prompted the complainant to go to the accused’s home where she found nothing. This prompted the accused’s arrest at Sandton Police Station. A probe conducted on the company financial transactions also found about R500000 to have been defrauded through among others, salary deductions for an employee who had long resigned.
In her plea of innocence, the accused claimed to have diligently, placed all incoming money in the safe. She claimed, however, that deposits and withdrawals from the safe by the complainant were not recorded.
