Durban — A former Newcastle Municipality senior salary clerk accused of defrauding the entity of R3.1 million appeared in the Durban Commercial Crimes Court recently.
Dedre van Rooyen, 52, allegedly misrepresented the municipality by manipulating its payroll system by targeting the accounts of people who were in the process of retiring and changing their banking details to hers.
Van Rooyen allegedly defrauded the municipality for eight years with 88 transactions between February 2012 and June 2020.
According to the charge sheet, Van Rooyen made the municipality or its management pay the salaries into fake accounts, thinking they were due and payable by the municipality.
According to a schedule produced in court, Van Rooyen induced the municipality to authorise and pay the money, causing prejudice or potential prejudice to the municipality. The figures totalled R3 157 198.07, according to the charge sheet.
It stated Van Rooyen made the misrepresentations intentionally, knowing that the employees listed were no longer in the employ of the municipality.
It added that she then caused the salaries totalling R3 044 850.74 to be paid into her own bank accounts. Van Rooyen was arrested in October 2020 and subsequently released on R50 000 bail.
Her bail conditions included that she surrender her passport to the investigating officer and not be allowed to visit any port of departure or leave KwaZulu-Natal without the permission of the investigating officer.
During cross-examination Captain Jaqueline Fourie said it was possible that some of the payments were made from legitimate accounts.
“I had to check by looking at the accused’s bank statements, whether there were payments made from fraudulent or legit accounts. She did identify some of the things (transactions).
“The money paid was quite a large amount. I had to break down the accounts from month to month to identify how the money was spent. There were large amounts of gaming purchases and vouchers, online game purchases for gambling,” said Fourie.
She stated that Van Rooyen took out short-term loans.
KZN National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara said the hearing was adjourned to October 20.
Daily News