EXPORT CONTROLLER SENTENCED TO DIRECT IMPRISONMENT FOR FRAUD
The Durban Specialised Commercial Crimes Court has sentenced Cindy Saunders(37) to an effective nine years imprisonment, after she pleaded guilty to 45 counts of fraud, amounting to approximately R16 million. In her plea, Saunders said that she was an export controller at RenCorp cc, trading as Nicholson Shipping. She admitted to having a gambling addiction and said that she decided to defraud her employer and another company SK Boyz (Pty) Ltd, to pay off her gambling debt. To this end, she enlisted the help of her co-accused, Terrance Gonasekharan Raju and his companies, South Continent Logistics and Troy Trans.
As part of the fraudulent scheme, Saunders generated false invoices. Saunders said in her plea that at the time of the commission of the offences, she knew that her actions were fraudulent and solely for her personal financial gain and that of her co-accused. She and her co-accused also defrauded S K Boyz by telling them that she needed a business partner to assist with financing the purchase of shipping containers from South Continent, promising them profits when the containers were sold. She admitted to doing this, with full knowledge that S K Boyz would not be paid back the money.
In presenting the state’s case Senior State Advocate Danette Cole led the evidence of the complainant a well as an accountant, who outlined the extent of the damage that the fraud had caused to the businesses.
In sentencing Saunders the court took into consideration that she had a gambling addiction and had sought counselling to rectify the problem and improve her life. For counts 12 to 36 of the fraud, where Nicholson Shipping is the complainant, Saunders was sentenced to six years imprisonment. For counts 37 to 54, she was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment, of which three years is suspended for five years on condition that she is not convicted of fraud or theft during the period of suspension; resulting in nine years imprisonment. For counts 133 to 135 where S K Boyz is the complainant, she was sentenced to eight years imprisonment. The court ordered that the six years and eight years imprisonment run concurrently with the nine years imprisonment, thus resulting in the effective sentence.
