JOHANNESBURG - The sentencing of a former bookkeeper who stole over 500-million rand has been postponed to Wednesday.
Hildegard Steenkamp pled guilty to over 336 charges related to fraud and theft.
She stole the money over 12 years from Medtronic.
At sentencing proceedings on Monday, the court heard that Steenkamp had a way of manipulating the system.
Deloitte’s Graham Dawes says she had put herself as a beneficiary of Medtronic so payments would go to her.
Steenkamp is charged with theft and fraud of over R500 million stolen from her former company, Medtronic where she worked as a bookkeeper.
Deloitte partner Graham Dawes said, "so it’s a complex matter but I’ll try to explain it in the simplest term."
"The accused was involved in the processing of all of the VAT claims on behalf of the company. So the company had two entities."
"They would import large volumes of medical equipment into SA then sell it to local companies."
"Between the two that created an opportunity for the company to claim back input VAT on the imports. That was the simplest form they were able to reclaim money they had paid to SARS."
"What happened here, the accused managed to set herself up as a beneficiary on the bank account of Medtronic…" "Paying herself monies that purported to be either for customs clearing agent or for SARS itself.”