Pretoria woman Annelize Holtzhausen will spend the next five years behind bars after the Polokwane Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Thursday found her guilty of stealing around R1.6 million from her employer.
The Hawks spokesperson in Limpopo, Captain Matimba Maluleke, said Holtzhausen, who was employed as a financial administration manager, siphoned money by creating fictitious claims and transferring money from her employer’s bank account into her personal bank account, and also into her husband’s bank account.
“Between January 28, 2019 and October 24, 2019, the accused was employed as a financial administration manager at Zandspruit Homeowners’ Association NPC in Hoedspruit. Some of her responsibilities as a manager were to pay the service providers for services rendered for the company,” Maluleke said.
“Instead of paying the service providers, the accused, who was the company’s head of financial administration, created fictitious claims and transferred the money from the company’s bank account into her personal bank account as if she was paying the service providers. Some of the stolen money was transferred into her husband’s bank account.”
It has been reported by the Hawks that the accused’s fraudulent activities were uncovered by the company auditors, who opened a case of fraud against the 35-year-old Holtzhausen.
The case was subsequently investigated by the Polokwane-based Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation Unit.
“After conducting a thorough investigation, the accused was arrested at her home in Hoedspruit on February 24, 2021 and later released on R5 000 bail. The company suffered a loss of over R1.6m.
“On May 29, 2022, the accused was found guilty on 185 counts of theft and her case was postponed to a later stage (April 20, 2023) for sentencing,” said Maluleke.