Aids money theft lands manager in jail

A FORMER financial manager of the Lironga Eparu HIV-AIDS non-governmental organisation has been jailed for five years for defrauding the HIV-AIDS support organisation of close to N$300 000.

While Lironga Eparu, which depends on donor funds to keep operating, was carrying out its work in HIV-AIDS advocacy and education and providing assistance to people living with HIV and AIDS, the man in charge of its finances, Zimbabwean national Peter Itai, was helping himself by stealing money from the organisation.In the Windhoek Regional Court last week, Itai heard what the price is that he would have to pay for the fraud that he committed against Lironga Eparu.Magistrate Sarel Jacobs sentenced Itai (33) to eight years’ imprisonment, of which three years were suspended for a period of five years on condition that Itai is not again convicted of fraud committed during the period of suspension.Itai has been in custody since July 23 2007.He pleaded guilty to 10 counts of fraud on October 7 this year.He admitted that between December 16 2006 and April 18 2007 he defrauded Lironga Eparu, where he was employed as an administrative consultant or financial manager, on ten occasions by altering cheques of the organisation.In a plea explanation provided to the court, Itai said he committed the fraud by adding a digit to the amounts on cheques that had been signed by the required board members of the organisation. Through that, he increased the amounts on the cheques, for instance from N$1 515,00 to N$51 515, which was the case with the first cheque, or from N$5 176 to N$25 176, which happened with the last cheque.The amounts by which the cheque amounts were increased in this way were then pocketed by himself, Itai admitted. He defrauded Lironga Eparu of a total of N$299 000 over the four months during which he was committing the fraud, Itai also admitted.He claimed he ‘committed these crimes due to extreme financial difficulties I experienced at the time’.He stated he was ‘extremely sorry and remorseful for the crimes’, and asked the court for mercy.He was represented by Legal Aid Directorate defence lawyer Brownell Uirab. The prosecution was conducted by Ingrid Husselmann.