A young attorney who held a director-level position at Hill, McHardy and Herbst Inc., an established Bloemfontein-based law firm, has suffered a double blow in a fraud charge against him. Ashlin Elvaro Saunderson (31) was sentenced to eight years for fraud by the Bloemfontein Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday (21/06).
The accused was sentenced after the court found him guilty of fraud, money laundering, and contravention of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (POCA) 121 of 1998.
The court found Saunderson guilty of defrauding his former employer of R1 million. His sentencing is the culmination of internal investigations by his former employer and the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team based in Bloemfontein.
Captain Christopher Singo, provincial spokesperson of the Hawks, said the accused will serve six years’ direct imprisonment. Singo said the swindled funds could not be recovered.
“Two years have been suspended for five years. The investigation revealed that Saunderson illegally transferred funds from the trust account to his own personal bank account,” said Singo.
Singo added that further probing discovered that Saunderson defrauded the company during the period of August 2020 until March 2022.
“Further investigation culminated in the arrest of Saunderson on 17 August 2022,” Singo concluded.
Saunderson’s sentencing is the second blow he was dealt. The first was him being struck off the roll of practising legal practitioners by the Free State Legal Practice Council (LPC). The provincial council disbarred him last year November after a successful application in the Free State High Court in Bloemfontein.
The council is mandated to set norms and standards, to provide for the admission and enrolment of legal practitioners, and to regulate the professional conduct of legal practitioners to ensure accountability.
