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Woman sentenced to five years in prison for theft

Annelize Holtzhausen (35) was sentenced to five years direct imprisonment for theft by the Polokwane Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on April 20.

According to a statement by the Directorate for Priority Crimes (Hawks) Holtzhauzen was employed as a financial administration manager at Zandspruit Homeowners Association NPC situated in Hoedspruit. “Some of her responsibilities as a manager, include paying service providers for services rendered.

Instead of paying the service providers, the accused created fictitious claims and transferred the money from the company’s bank account into her personal bank account. Some of the stolen money was transferred into her husband’s bank account. The company suffered a loss of over R1,6 million,” Capt Matimba Maluleke, media liaison for the Hawks stated.

Also read: Up in flames

According to Maluleke, Holtzhausen’s fraudulent activities were discovered by the company’s auditors who opened a case of fraud. The case was investigated by the Polokwane-based Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation. After conducting a thorough investigation, the accused was arrested at her home in Hoedspruit on February 2021 and later released on R5 000 bail.

The accused was found guilty of 185 counts of theft in May 2022 and her case was postponed to April 20, 2023, for sentencing

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Anwen Mojela

Anwen Mojela is a journalist at the Letaba Herald. She graduated with an Advanced Diploma in Journalism at the Tshwane University of Technology. Including an internship and freelancing, Anwen has four years’ experience in the field and has been a permanent name in the Herald for nearly three years. Anwen’s career highlights include a water corruption investigative story when she was an intern and delving into wildlife and nature conservation. “I became a journalist mainly to be the voice of the voiceless, especially working for a community newspaper. Helping with the bit that I can, makes choosing journalism worth it.

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