Woman cried over stolen money

2009-11-09 20:06

Cape Town - A bookkeeper burst into tears when confronted about money she had allegedly stolen, the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court heard on Monday.

Before the court was Desiree Cheryl Adonis, 31, who pleaded not guilty to 536 counts of fraud, involving R1 229 900 allegedly stolen from the furniture factory Pierre Cronje (Pty) Ltd.

Managing director Pierre Cronje told the court Adonis started as a junior bookkeeper. She worked her way up to senior bookkeeper, to become the second most important person in the company, with a workforce of 150.

He told the court: "I trusted her to the degree that I allowed her to pay all the wages and creditors."

Made up staff names

In the year 2007, he promoted a floor manager, Neeraj Dyer, to director, tasked with ensuring all the wage earners were productive.

Cronje said he gave Dyer a list of staff names. The next day Dyer reported to Cronje there were four names on the list he had never heard of.

Cronje said this prompted an investigation, which revealed the names in question were not on the wage list.

"I could not believe that Adonis could steal from me, because we had a long history together, and I had trusted her."

Cleverly concealed discrepancies

Cronje said he informed her of the discrepancies, and asked her if she could solve the problem. The next morning, he confronted Adonis and asked for her explanation about the four mystery names.

Adonis burst into tears, and admitted she had stolen money, Cronje said. The same day, Adonis also handed him a letter in which she explained her actions.

Cronje said Adonis first admitted to stealing R32 500, but his own calculations brought the figure, initially, to R34 000. He called in auditors, who found more discrepancies that had been cleverly concealed.

He said they probed bank statements five years back, to reach a figure of R1 299 900.

Cronje said he was convinced the alleged fraud involved even more, but it was impractical to go more back than five years. He said the alleged fraud almost drove the company into insolvency, and caused severe cash-flow problems.

The trial continues on Tuesday.
 

- SAPA