Charges against Jacques Nell relate to fraud

POLOKWANE – Former Polokwane businessman Jacques Nell, who was arrested last week on charges of fraud, will have a lot to answer to when his trial begins.

Supporting Nell last week during court proceedings, were his wife Lucille, and son Rudi.

Nell was arrested on charges of fraud amounting to nearly R10 million, which is a schedule 5 offence as described in the Criminal Procedures Act no 51 of 1977.

According to the charge sheet Nell committed fraud by supplying Absa bank with false tax invoices to secure financing for two new DocuTech machines. He is said to have misledd the bank to secure finance for the machines, which resulted in the potential loss of some R9 million after Nell’s company, Data Master Office Automation CC, was voluntarily liquidated. The actual loss incurred by Absa was some R1,7 million. Nell was the sole member of Data Master Office Automation CC.

The charge sheet further stated that Nell applied to Absa around March 2009 for asset finance for two new Xerox DocuTech machines under two account numbers, for the amounts of R4,3 million and R3,1 million. The deposits were R850 000 and R638 000 respectively for the machines. The application was approved by Absa.

The irregularities were uncovered during an investigation by the Hawks into government tenders that were awarded in an irregular, fraudulent or corrupt manner in various departments put under administration during December 2011.

The Hawks approached Absa with certain information gathered during their investigations, and Absa decided to open two cases of fraud against Nell.

It is alleged that Data Master already bought the abovementioned DocuTech machines in 2003 and 2006 from Bytes Document Solutions “Xerox”, the company that holds the sole distribution rights for Xerox machines in South Africa. Bytes Document Solutions allegedly confirmed that the amounts of just over R4 million and nearly R3 million were deposited into their bank account on March 3 2009 in lieu of payment of Data Master’s debt to them.

It is further alleged that Technologies Acceptance “Fintech” had records of financing the same machines on behalf of Data Master before March 2009. Another firm, Pambile Document Solution CC, stated that the tax invoices supplied for the application of the finances were false, and denied selling any of the two machines to Data Master Office Automation in 2009.

Nell apparently signed the contract in the presence of an Absa staff member.

The Hawks said they would oppose bail, as they considered Nell a flight risk.

At the time of going to print, Nell’s bail application was postponed to be heard today (Tuesday).

He had been in custody since his first court appearance last week.