Pretoria – Former financial manager Samantha Michelle Taggart, who stole nearly a million rand, has been sentenced to six years in prison by the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court.
Taggart was sent to prison for 17 counts of fraud involving more than R950 000.
The court heard that the accused committed the fraud between October 2016 and October 2017 when she was employed as a financial manager at Vansan SA CC – a company that sells water pumps.
During her employment, Taggart’s duties included receiving all electronic and cash payments for the company, making cash and electronic payments to suppliers.
In addition, the accused was responsible for making Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and VAT payments to the South African Revenue Service (SARS).
However, the court found that instead of making those payments, Taggert transferred money meant for suppliers and SARS to her own personal bank account.
The anomaly came to light when a supplier enquired about their outstanding payment.
Taggert was questioned about it by the company director and it became clear something was amiss.
After being questioned Taggert resigned from her job.
When the director went to Taggert’s house to further enquire about the missing money, she returned R120 000 that was still in the company money seal bag.
A few weeks later, Taggart’s father paid back R500 000 to the company.
The matter was reported to the police and subsequently ended up in court, where Taggart pleaded guilty to all the charges.
The accused pleaded for a non-custodial sentence because she paid back some of the money and was remorseful.
However, the state argued that Taggert only pleaded guilty because the state had overwhelming evidence against her.
Prosecutor Advocate Malisela Abram Machitela told the court that owing to Taggert’s fraud some of the company’s employees were retrenched.
Advocate Machitela asked the court to impose a custodial sentence because Taggert was employed in a position of trust and only committed the offences out of greed.
Sentencing the accused, Magistrate Ignatius de Preez agreed with the state that Taggert was not remorseful and that she only stopped stealing the money because she was caught.
Magistrate De Preez said the fraud offences were too serious for the imposition of a fine, and, therefore, a sentence of direct imprisonment was the only appropriate punishment that fits the crime.
