A bookkeeper from George, Gillian Wileman (56), was on Friday sentenced to eight years of direct imprisonment in the George Regional Court on 233 counts of fraud.

Wileman was sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment of which six years will be suspended for five years.

According to Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) spokesperson Zinzi Hani, the convicted bookkeeper stole more than R7.6m from a company that she worked for from 2016 until 2022.

Her duties included capturing bank statement transactions and administering payments to creditors and suppliers.

The accused had access to the preparation of payments that needed to be made from the company to various creditors.

The Hawks investigation successfully proved in court that she diverted payments into her account for personal gain, instead of paying money from the business to the creditors, between January 29, 2016, and December 31, 2020.

“A thorough investigation revealed that the accused concealed the movement of the said funds. The matter was then reported to the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation Unit for further investigation, which later led to her being summoned to appear in court on November 25, 2022,” says Hani.