GEORGE NEWS - A former senior financial clerk at South African Breweries (SAB) was caught with her hands in the cookie jar after cooking the books.
Queraysha Naidoo (38), who currently lives in Port Elizabeth, was charged with 336 counts of fraud and theft.
She pleaded guilty to all 336 counts in the George Regional Court on Monday 12 February before Magistrate Marius Fourie.
Since February 2013 Naidoo, who was responsible for the data capturing of each employee as well as collecting and handling wage payments, manipulated the wage sheets by adding fictitious workers to the list.
This enabled her to collect and pocket the extra wages.
Over two years she collected a total amount of R257 765, 99.
Caught red-handed
In May 2015 one of the SAB farm managers, George Blackburn, noticed some irregularities on the printout of payments made to workers between 20 and 27 May.
When he questioned Naidoo about this, she explained she was training a temporary worker and showing her how to add workers on to the system.
Early in June, Blackburn again noticed irregularities with the wages when he saw more names on the wage sheet than there were employees for that week.
This led to the discovery of Naidoo's fraud.
The investigation was completed in 2017 and she was charged with fraud in September.
Naidoo was released on a warning and will appear for her sentencing on 26 March.
Naidoo is represented by Winston Jansen from Nico Smit Attorneys. Candice Simon is representing the state.
ARTICLE: KRISTY KOLBERG, GEORGE HERALD JOURNALIST
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