NELSPRUIT – Mr Louis Hechroodt was arrested again this week. He appeared in the District Court on charges of fraud on Thursday.
Hechroodt was arrested on Tuesday. It is alleged that he had committed fraud to the value of R50 000 against BUCO where he had been working as a workshop manager for the past three months.
The accused allegedly failed to pay suppliers, pocketing the money instead. Of the total, he has allegedly repaid approximately R11 000 to BUCO, a building material supplier.
Hechroodt has a history of alleged fraud. In April, he was rearrested for a 2010 case of fraud against him in Linden, Johannesburg, where he had allegedly forged proof of payments with a company. In March, his former employer, Sharp, also laid charges of fraud against him after he had apparently sold stock and kept the money.
In February, he was rearrested after he had allegedly forged payment to a vehicle company. At that time, he was out on bail on three previous cases of fraud and one case of theft of a docket against him.
One of his previous charges was for allegedly forging evidence of Internet payments to buy tickets to the value of R18 400 for the Innibos Festival in 2012. The others are from Xerox and another vehicle company. He is also alleged to have stolen one of the police dockets on him out of a prosecutor’s office.
On Thursday, Hechroodt told the court that he intended to plead guilty to the charges. He did not apply for bail. The case was postponed for further investigation until October 24.
