A 53-year-old woman has been sentenced to direct imprisonment for stealing over R13 million from the Stellenbosch law firm where she was employed.
Image: File
A secretary from a Stellenbosch law firm who faced fraud and money laundering charges has been sentenced in the Bellville Commercial Crimes Court in Cape Town.
Alwena Smith, 53, a senior accounts secretary, was convicted on 171 counts of fraud, 171 counts of interference with data, and four counts of money laundering after she entered into a plea and sentencing agreement with the State.
She siphoned over R13 million.
Smith worked for a law firm that specialised in notaries, conveyancing, estate law, and third-party claims.
She was employed from March 2006 until she was fired in May 2018, managing day-to-day income and expenditure including receipting monies as well as regular banking duties. She had access to electronic computer systems and files.
Clients would pay monies or retainers into the law firm’s trust account. Whenever work was done on a client’s file, payment would be deducted from the client’s account or retainer held in the law firm’s trust bank account.
As part of her duties, Smith had to make electronic payments, and she was assigned an internet profile on the law firm’s trust bank account. She was also responsible for paying the debtors and creditors of the law firm.
Evidence revealed that Smith used her internet profile and her colleague’s internet profile to create fictitious profiles on the trust account profiles and made 171 transfers into her private bank account. An investigation revealed that 171 illegal cheques were withdrawn from different client files to which she had access.
The investigation further revealed she had stolen R13,267,096.59 between January 2016 and April 2, 2018.
On the 171 charges of interfering with data, the accused created false beneficiaries to conceal payments to her private bank accounts. She deliberately made spelling mistakes in creating false beneficiaries of existing clients so that the law firm’s banking system would not show that the beneficiaries already existed.
Attempting to conceal her fraudulent activities, Smith paid back R6.5 million to the law firm’s trust account.
It was further found that before she started siphoning funds, Smith registered a company, Garda TeK (Pty) Ltd, to which she was the sole director.
Smith paid some of the stolen money into her company’s accounts and some money into the bank accounts of her husband and daughter, to whom she lied, claiming she received an inheritance.
The husband and daughter who were initially implicated in the matter were cleared after Smith confessed that they were not aware of her crimes.
The court sentenced her to 12 years’ direct imprisonment for the 171 counts of fraud, taken together with five years suspended for five years on condition that she is not convicted of fraud, theft, or corruption. The court sentenced her to 12 months’ direct imprisonment, wholly suspended for five years, on condition that she is not convicted of interference with data.
It further sentenced her to 12 years' direct imprisonment for four counts of money laundering, which were wholly suspended for five years on condition that she is not convicted of money laundering in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act 121 of 1998. The court ordered the sentences to run concurrently and declared her unfit to possess a firearm.
Smith will serve a seven-year direct imprisonment sentence.
robin.francke@iol.co.za
IOL