A 38-year-old Cape Town man has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for fraud, of which two years were suspended for a period of five years, meaning he will serve an effective eight years behind bars, the Hawks said this week.

Riaan Theunissen was sentenced on Tuesday 9 June by the Cape Town Regional Court after being convicted on 473 counts of fraud totalling R5 552 000, which he misappropriated from his employer, Just Properties in Table View.

How the fraud was carried out

Theunissen disguised and facilitated irregular payments at the company, circumventing controls in the PayProp system’s payments module by archiving certain transactions. He further failed to adhere to the company’s approval and payment policies and procedures, the Hawks said.

Hawks praise investigation and prosecution teams

The Provincial Head of the Hawks in the Western Cape, Maj Gen Mathipa Makgato, commended both the investigation and the prosecution teams for the breakthrough. He further warned the public that the law would ultimately prevail against all those involved in criminal activities.

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