A former finance clerk from the Clicks Group has been sentenced to eight years behind bars for fraud and money laundering.
Themba Maneli, 28, was found guilty on Thursday in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crimes Court.
The fraudster and his co-accused Nanky Kanase were busted in 2019 by the Hawks, after he opened a business banking account with FNB and created six fictitious invoices to his business for payment by Clicks to the tune of more than R4 million.
Maneli was the director and sole signatory of a registered company called Maneli Enterprises while his girlfriend, Nanky, operated Business Connectivity Solutions.
At the time of his arrest, he was working as a finance clerk for Clicks and was responsible for creating purchase orders and processing monthly journals.
However, a debtor’s manager discovered suspicious entries in two of his ledger accounts.
The entries revealed that he created Business Connectivity Solutions on January 8, 2019 and six days later, he created six purchase orders with purchase order numbers where he claimed the Clicks Group owed over R4m to his fake company.
NPA spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila says Clicks forensic investigators confronted Maneli and later found “substantial” evidence in his backpack.
“They found his and his girlfriend’s identity documents, his driver’s licence and bank cards, his company’s bank card, her bank card and a debit card with no name printed on it, as well as a memory flash disc with the words ‘Auditor General South Africa’ printed on it,” Ntabazalila explained.
The memory card also contained information on his company’s registration and the six fraudulent invoices.
Maneli’s fate was sealed and he was convicted on six counts of fraud and one count of money laundering, while Nanky was acquitted of all the charges.