A former accountant at a municipality in KwaZulu-Natal who stole over R6 million has been sentenced to an effective seven years in jail.

Lindiwe Ngomane, 48, was sentenced in the Durban Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Wednesday.

Her co-accused Nhlanhla Christian Gumede, 65, and Raphael Mbili, 44, were also sentenced.

The fraud took place at the uMkhanyakude Municipality in the Mkuze area in 2006.

Explaining the merits of the case, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson in KZN Natasha Ramkisson-Kara said: “At the time of the offence in March 2006, Ngomane worked as an accountant at the municipality.

“During this time, she managed to fraudulently obtain the passwords/credentials of senior officials who were authorised to effect payments on behalf of the municipality.

“She then used the said credentials to transfer approximately R6.2 million from the municipality’s bank account into different banking accounts which she had loaded onto the system.”

The NPA said Gumede and Mbili assisted her in obtaining the bank account details for one of the accounts belonging to someone who owned an investment company, where Ngomane deposited about R1.5 million.

“Evidence led in court revealed that the owner of the bank account was unaware that the money transferred into his account had been stolen.”

The NPA said the court heard witness testimonies from two of Ngomane’s subordinates who testified that she had approached them for assistance in carrying out the fraudulent scheme.

“The State also led the of the evidence of two of the officials whose passwords Ngomane had obtained and used to affect the various fraudulent payments. They told the court that they had not authorised the transfers in question, even though their credentials were used.”

Ramkisson-Kara said the court deviated from the minimum sentence of 15 years imprisonment, citing the accused’s age and poor health as reasons for the deviation.

“The court considered that after the money belonging to the municipality was transferred into the unauthorised banking accounts, the bank accounts were frozen and almost half of the R 6.2 million initially stolen from the Municipality was recovered.”

The NPA said Ngomane was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment (three years of which were conditionally suspended for five years) and will serve an effective seven years imprisonment.

Gumede was jailed to an effective five years, while Mbili was sentenced to an effective sentence of three years imprisonment.

IOL News

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