KABOKWENI – A 51-year-old man who held a management position at White River Mills was charged with fraud and theft after he allegedly stole more than R1,5 million from his employer.
Mr Pierre Kruger appeared in the KaBokweni Magistrate’s Court on Thursday and the case was postponed to July 29.
The theft was allegedly committed from May 2014 to January 2016.
According to a sworn statement made by the complainant in the case, Mr Jan Arie Gutter, the accused was responsible for facilitating the delivery of white and brown flour to the mill’s clients.
On February 2 Gutter double-checked the contents of a truck Kruger had loaded for delivery.
When compared with the inventory reflected on the invoices made out to clients, things did not add up.
“Fifty bags of brown flour had been loaded for delivery, while 130 had been invoiced. A total of 160 bags of white flour was loaded while only 80 had been invoiced,” Gutter explained. He confronted the accused with the discrepancy.
Kruger initially tried to offer an explanation, but resigned two days later.
In the days that followed, Gutter’s follow-up investigations led to the discovery of more misrepresentations allegedly having been made by the same employee.
According to Gutter’s statement, Kruger falsified various invoices, other company documents and the signatures of company officials.
He had allegedly increased clients’ credit limits wrongfully in order to draw benefits from doing so in a fraudulent way.
It is further alleged that he had also committed tax fraud.
Lowvelder was provided with a copy of Kruger’s resignation letter.
In it, he acknowledged that he had “sinned before man and before God”.
He wanted to “make and end to everything” and anticipated “entering the gates of heaven”. This, however, did not happen and criminal charges were laid against him a while later.
The accused offered to pay back what he took from his employer.
Gutter has, however, not received a single payment from the remorseful man as yet and has, consequently, decided to continue with the criminal action against his former employee.
