Fraud LATEST: Woman sentenced for 972 counts totalling R13.4m

The Port Elizabeth Specialised Commercial Crimes Court has sentenced  a creditor’s clerk to 15 years in jail after she was found guilty of a whopping 972 counts of fraud.  

Estelle Burgess, 65, pleaded guilty to the fraud which she committed over a ten year period in February 2021.

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) regional spokesperson Anelisa Ngcakani said that Burgess had committed the fraud when she worked at the Eastern Cape Training Centre (ECT) in Gqeberha as a creditor’s clerk from November 2004 to September 2014. She swindled ECT of R13.4 million over the ten year period.

“Burgess’ duties included capturing of payments due to suppliers or creditors and submitting captured payment lists for authorisation and payment,” Ngcakani said.

ECT used an online internet payment system to pay creditors and as the creditor’s clerk, Burgess assisted ECT’s Financial manager to make payments to the creditors. 

“Only the two of them had access to ECT’s banking system and she, amongst her other duties, created spreadsheets which included the banking details of the creditors and the amounts that were due. Burgess presented these documents to the financial manager who would then authorise payments,” Ngcakani said.

“She had access to nine bank accounts from four different banks and some were under her name. Burgess fraudulently substituted the banking details of creditors and suppliers with her own. As a result, R13 460 236.05 was paid into her nine bank accounts ,” Ngcakani  said.

The fraudulent transfers took place over a period of ten years from The Hawks arrested her in January 2019.

Regional Magistrate, Nolitha Bara noted during sentencing that Burgess had not taken the court into her confidence as she had never disclosed why she committed the fraud and stolen the millions. 

Bara said that the court had been left guessing as there was evidence that Burgess was a gambler. 

Bara added that Burgess had ample time to stop committing the fraud as the crimes had been committed over a period of ten years.

She said fraud had a crippling effect on the company. 

“The court also heard that the company as a result was unable to pay its employees during the hard lockdown in 2020. The magistrate stated that fraud in general takes away resources from the poorest of the poor,” Ngcakani said.