A former Protea Coin credit controller appeared in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court on charges of fraud and forgery.
|||Cape Town - A former Protea Coin credit controller appeared in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court on Monday, on charges of fraud and forgery.
Egan Dale Harmse, 34, faces 57 counts of fraud and 58 of forgery. He was told to appear in court again on July 3.
At his first appearance on May 31, Harmse asked for free legal representation. At Monday's proceedings, Legal Aid SA attorney Hailey Lawrence said Harmse failed the means test and therefore did not qualify for legal aid.
According to the charge sheet, Harmse was credit controller for four years, until June 2008.
His duties were to manage clients' accounts, contact clients with outstanding accounts, send invoices and issue receipts.
Prosecutor Ezmeralda Johnson said Harmse was not authorised to personally collect money from clients, or offer them discounts.
She alleged that he collected cash payments from various clients - from September 2006, to June 2008 - and used R156 204 for his own purposes. According to the charge sheet, all invoices were generated and issued by the company's Pretoria head office. Harmse, however, allegedly unlawfully generated and issued invoices himself.
Clients who fell victim to the fraud were listed in the charge sheet as Fruit and Vegetable City, S Paleker Motors, Langverwacht Spar, Huda Service Station and Ben Vorster Motors. - Sapa