COMPANY FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION MANAGER SENTENCED TO 5 DIRECT YEARS IMPRISONMENT FOR THEFT
LIMPOPO – Annelize Holtzhausen (35) was sentenced to 5 years direct imprisonment for theft by the Polokwane Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on 20 April 2023.
Between 28 January 2019 and 24 October 2019, the accused was employed as a Financial Administration Manager at Zandspruit Homeowners Association NPC situated in Hoedspruit. Some of her responsibilities as a manager were to pay the service providers for services rendered for the company.
Instead of paying the service providers, the accused created fictitious claims and transferred the money from the company’s bank account into her personal bank account as if she was paying the service providers. Some of the stolen money was transferred into her husband’s bank account.
Holtzhausen’s fraudulent activities were discovered by the company auditors who opened a case of fraud. The case was investigated by the Polokwane based Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation.
After conducting a thorough investigation, the accused was arrested at her home in Hoedspruit on 24 February 2021 and later released on R5 000-00 bail. The company suffered a loss of over R1,6 million.
On 29 May 2022, the accused was found guilty on 185 counts of theft and her case was postponed to a later stage (20 April 2023) for sentencing.
