A 33-year old accountant who misappropriated more than R4.1 million whilst working as an Expenditure Accountant of the Berg River Municipality in Piketberg has been sentenced to eight (8) years imprisonment for what the court described as “a significant breach of trust”.
Nicholas Clayton Cloete Scholtz was sentenced in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime court yesterday after pleading guilty on charges of stealing.
The accused was found guilty on ten (10) counts of fraud and one (1) count of money laundering.
His sentence will run as follows:
Count 1: Fraud- He was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment of which four (4) years were suspended on condition that he is not found guilty of theft or fraud in the period of suspension.
Count 11: Moneylaundering- He was sentenced to five (5) years direct imprisonment. The sentence will run concurrent with with the sentence for counts 1- 10.
It is reported that between May to July 2019 Scholtz stole over R1.4 million from the Berg River Municipality where he was employed as an accountant. The court heard that he had access to the bank account of the municipality.
A total sum of R1.4 million was reportedly transferred from the municipality’s account to accounts belonging to Scholtz and at that of a friend where Scholtz created fraudulent beneficiary names in order to hide the fact that money was being paid directly to his personal bank account.
He reportedly made 10 transactions over a period of three (3) months during which he stole money for personal use and out of these 10 transactions two were transferred to his friend who later returned the bulk of the money received back to Scholtz.
Effectively Scholtz will serve eight years direct imprisonment. Additionally the court declared him unfit to possess a firearm.
