Manager guilty of defrauding courier firm
A courier company’s international manager, who “saw an opportunity” to scam his employer, was sentenced to three year’s house arrest.
|||Cape Town – A courier company’s international manager, who “saw an opportunity” to scam his employer, was sentenced to three year’s house arrest on Wednesday on fraud charges.
Shaun van der Lingen, 31, appeared in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Bellville before magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg and pleaded guilty to 12 counts of fraud.
The proceedings took the form of a plea bargain, negotiated by defence attorney Liesl Vermaak and State prosecutor advocate Juan Agulhas.
According to the plea bargain document, Van der Lingen was an international manager with the company Globe Flight Worldwide Express.
The document says he “saw an opportunity” to exploit Globe Flight for his own benefit, and over a period of nine months defrauded the company to the extent of R315 187.
He manipulated the company’s electronic system by replacing the company’s bank details with his own on invoices sent to clients.
In this manner, money owing to Globe Flight ended up in Van der Lingen’s personal bank account.
As an aggravating factor, the prosecutor said the vigilance of staff had uncovered the fraud and that Van der Lingen had not “come clean” of his own accord.
He was motivated by greed, the prosecutor said, adding that the scam was well-planned and that Van der Lingen had abused his position of trust.
The defence said he had repaid a “substantial amount”.
Van der Lingen was sentenced to five year’s imprisonment, conditionally suspended for five years.
One of the conditions was that he submit himself to three year’s house arrest at his home in Sunningdale, and performs cleaning and maintenance duties at the Table View police station.
Legislation empowers prison authorities to visit an offender under house arrest at any time of the night to ensure that the offender is at home, and has not consumed liquor or narcotics.
Van der Lingen was also declared unfit to possess a firearm – normal procedure for anyone found guilty of an offence involving dishonesty.
African News Agency
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