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Fin24 reports that the Hawks have arrested and charged two sisters from Pretoria for allegedly defrauding food and packaged goods group Premier of R137 million by diverting payments from customers to their own bank accounts.
The siblings, Barbara van Zyl, 54, and Christa Smith, 53, were arrested by the unit's Germiston-based Serious Commercial Crime squad in early August. They appeared in the Palm Ridge Commercial Court this month and were released on R10,000 bail each. The sisters face up to 30 years in jail if found guilty under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act. Van Zyl and Smith were employed as senior credit controllers at Premier. Van Zyl was employed by the company in 2002 and her sister joined her in 2008. In 2012, the two created a company called ABC Fire Project. Van Zyl was its sole director, while Smith had signing powers over its bank account. In 2016, the siblings allegedly used their senior positions at Premier to get a large customer to start paying for goods into their ABC Fire account rather than Premier's. Some of these payments were made in cash. Between 2016 and 2020, R137 million was said to have been paid into the sisters' bank account by a single customer. The sisters allegedly tried to cover their tracks by creating bogus debit and credit entries and shuffling funds between bank accounts. Both sisters have denied any wrongdoing and intend to plead not guilty. The case is set to continue next month.
Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Jan Cronje at Fin24 (subscriber access only)
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