A former financial accountant who used four different methods to embezzle Pep Clothing is to be sentenced next week on 359 counts of fraud involving R894 689.
|||Cape Town - A former financial accountant who used four different methods to embezzle Pep Clothing, a division of Pepkor Retail Ltd, is to be sentenced next week on 359 counts of fraud involving R894 689.
Garth le Roux, 39, a married father of two, was to have been sentenced on Friday, after pleading guilty, but a correctional supervision report required by the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court had not yet been completed.
Prosecutor Derek Vogel told magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg that the correctional supervision officer had interviewed Le Roux, but that his report would only be ready for the court to consider on July 30.
Correctional supervision is a sentencing option involving house arrest without imprisonment, or a short period of imprisonment after which the prisoner is released into house arrest.
As the financial accountant, Le Roux had been responsible for the safeguarding of Pepkor Clothing's daily float of R19,000 petty cash.
As the person solely responsible for the safekeeping of the petty cash, Le Roux was able to manipulate the system for self-gain.
One method used was to falsify wage claims paid for from petty cash.
In another method, he manipulated subsistence claims lodged by consultants engaged from time to time, by inflating the amount claimed and keeping the excess for himself.
The third and fourth methods involved the manipulation of petty cash claims lodged without supporting documents to validate the claims.
At earlier proceedings, financial manager Arthur Meyer described Le Roux as a competent accountant, and told the court how impressed he and other executives had been with the strict manner in which Le Roux had dealt with financial matters.
Meyer said he had never suspected any dishonesty from Le Roux, but that the embezzlement only came to light after the payroll manageress had mentioned to him that she was concerned about Le Roux.
He said the company wanted Le Roux jailed. - Sapa