Pretoria – A former manager at Fanatics Trading (Pty), 44-year-old Jans Daniel Naude, has been sent to prison for fraud involving millions of rand.
Naude, who admitted committing the offences because he felt overlooked for promotion, was convicted on 23 counts of fraud involving more than R2 million.
On Tuesday, 20 January 2026, the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court sentenced Naude to seven years’ imprisonment.
However, the court suspended three years of the prison term for five years on condition that Naude was not convicted of fraud and theft during the period of suspension.
The court also declared the accused unfit to possess a firearm.
Evidence before the court was that Naude was employed as the Technical and Production Manufacturing Facilities Manager from 2014 until February 2024 at Fanatics Trading (Pty) Ltd, a company involved in food production and meat and poultry processing.
His responsibilities included ordering bulk stock from suppliers, including chicken products.
Between 12 August 2016 and 12 January 2022, Naude created fraudulent invoices and delivery notes purportedly from Federated Meats and substituted the supplier’s legitimate banking details with those of his personal First National Bank (FNB) account.
As a result, payments exceeding R2 million were unlawfully diverted into his personal account.
The fraud was uncovered when senior management at Fanatics Trading detected irregular and excessive stock purchases.
An independent auditing firm was appointed, and following the audit findings, the matter was reported to the police.
Naude was subsequently summoned to appear in court.
In court, Naude pleaded guilty and admitted that he committed the offences after feeling aggrieved at being overlooked for a promotion.
Through his legal representative, he sought a non-custodial sentence, citing that he was a first-time offender and the primary caregiver to his two minor children.
However, State Advocate Lerato Phoebe Labuschagne opposed a lenient sentence, stressing the seriousness of the offences and the gross abuse of trust.
She informed the court that the financial prejudice suffered by the company was so severe that it had to borrow money to pay employees’ salaries and urged the court to impose a sentence that would send a strong deterrent message.
In handing down a sentence, Magistrate Ignatius de Preez found that Naude failed to demonstrate genuine remorse and pleaded guilty only because the State had a strong case against him.
The court further noted that Naude did not take the court into his confidence by disclosing what he did with the stolen funds.
Magistrate De Preez concluded that a custodial sentence was appropriate under the circumstances.
“The National Prosecuting Authority welcomes the sentence, which affirms that those who abuse positions of trust for personal gain will be held accountable,” spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana stated.
“The sentence serves as a clear warning that white-collar crime is not victimless and will be met with decisive prosecutorial action.”
