Bluff shipping con artist sentenced for swindling millions

A Bluff woman who was charged with fraud totalling about R16m was sentenced to nine years imprisonment in the Durban Specialised Commercial Crime Court on Tuesday, February 14.

Cindy Saunders (37), together with her co-accused, Terrence Raju, and two companies which he represented, South Continent Logistics and Troy Trans, were accused of defrauding her former employer, Nicholson Shipping, and another company, S K Boyz, between 2017 and 2019.

Saunders, who worked as an export controller at Nicholson Shipping, pleaded guilty to 45 counts of fraud in February 2021.

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She said she resolved to defraud her former employer in order to raise the money.

Saunders said she could not perpetrate the crimes on her own, and therefore she approached Raju to assist her to commit the acts of fraud.

She said he would also facilitate the transfer of money into and out of the accounts of South Continent Logistics and Troy Trans for her benefit.

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Saunders said her co-accused also benefited financially from the fraud committed.

She said as part of the fraudulent scheme, she generated false invoices from her former employer for containers sold to another company.

Saunders said she and Raju continued to misrepresent that South Continent Logistics and Troy Trans had sold containers and rendered services to her former employer amounting to millions of rands.

Further to this, Saunders and her co-accused also defrauded SK Boyz by telling them that she needed a business partner to assist with financing the purchase of shipping containers from the South Continent, promising them profits when the containers were sold.