A former Nedbank employee will know her fate next year after she was convicted on 16 charges of fraud.
Dolene Harrison, 49, was convicted in the Cape Town Regional Court on December 1.
Hawks spokesperson Siyabulela Vukubi said it emerged during court details that Harrison had transferred funds illegally.
“The accused was employed by Nedbank Investment Management in Cape Town as an administrator in the operations centre and internal Nedbank accounts for Investment Management.
“It is alleged that during the period of May 2015 (to) November 2015 the accused illegally transferred funds from the general ledger account held at Nedbank to a suspense account held at Nedbank and thereafter transferred the funds from the suspense account to various accounts held at Standard Bank, Absa and FNB to the value of R5.3 million,” said Vukubi.
The matter was referred to the Hawks' Serious Commercial Crime Investigation. The accused was found guilty and sentencing will be handed down on January 24, 2024.
Meanwhile, in the Eastern Cape, the Hawks lauded another successful conviction against Sihleza Development Company, whose sole director is Tholsienathan Shamoogam Pillay, on charges of fraud and money laundering.
Hawks spokesperson Yolisa Mgolodela said the East London-based Serious Commercial Crime Investigation of the Hawks, jointly with Asset Forfeiture Unit of the National Prosecuting Authority, secured the conviction of Pillay, 59, on November 30 on charges of fraud and money laundering.
“During June 2017, Cocks Attorneys were instructed by their client to attend to the transfer of an immovable property. The property was indeed registered in the name of the new owner and payment by the new owner was paid into the attorneys’ trust account.
“During the same month, the attorneys received an email purporting to be from their client instructing them to transfer the proceeds of the sale of the property into her First National Bank account. More than R1.8m was transferred to the said account,” said Mgolodela.
When she failed to receive the proceeds, the client lodged a complaint which landed up with the Hawks. An investigation revealed that the account given to the attorneys did not belong to the client, but to Sihleza Development Company.
“More than R1.5m has since been recovered and paid to the client. The outstanding amount is still to be paid to the client before the next court date,” said Mgolodela.
The matter was remanded to April 30, 2024 for Pillay to pay the balance to the complainant and for sentencing.
Cape Times