Fruit firm thief just couldn’t get enough

HAVING confessed that she embezzled close to a quarter of a million Namibia dollars from her employers in little over half a year, a young Oshakati woman also admitted to a Magistrate this week that she just kept on stealing money because she felt she still had not stolen enough.

The 24-year-old Monica Manzila made these admissions before Magistrate Walter Mostert in the Oshakati Magistrate’s Court on Monday, when she pleaded guilty to 61 charges of fraud. She admitted that she had defrauded her employer, fruit and vegetable dealers Dirk Fruit, of a total of N$245 938 on 61 occasions between November 4 last year and June 27 this year.Some N$90 000 of the stolen money was spent on buying herself a house, the court heard.When Magistrate Mostert asked Manzila why she never stopped stealing money from her employer during the eight months that she was embezzling thousands of dollars from Dirk Fruit, she had a very simple answer ready: she had simply not yet stolen enough.Manzila was employed as a cashier with Dirk Fruit.Unbeknown to the managers of the business, she had managed to get hold of the computer code of one of the managers, which she then used since early November last year to make entries on her cash register computer to show that various discounts had been granted to customers that were buying produce from Dirk Fruit.The customers however never received the discounts.Instead, the money that they effectively overpaid as a result of the discounts she had entered on transactions, found its way into her own pockets.She was arrested on July 22.Soon thereafter, some N$114 500 in cash which she still had available was returned to Amina Dirk, the complainant who had made the case against her.In terms of the sentence that Magistrate Mostert imposed on Manzila on Monday, more of the embezzled money is set to be returned to the rightful owner.The Magistrate ordered Manzila to compensate Mrs Dirk by transferring the house that she had bought with the stolen money into Mrs Dirk’s name, and to pay the transfer costs to boot.In addition, Manzila was sentenced to pay a combined fine of N$32 000, or to serve an effective term of 16 years’ imprisonment.The 61 fraud charges on which she pleaded guilty were taken together in three groups of 15 counts each, and one group of 16 charges, and in respect of each group of charges she was sentenced to a fine of N$8 000 or four years’ imprisonment.She admitted that she had defrauded her employer, fruit and vegetable dealers Dirk Fruit, of a total of N$245 938 on 61 occasions between November 4 last year and June 27 this year.Some N$90 000 of the stolen money was spent on buying herself a house, the court heard. When Magistrate Mostert asked Manzila why she never stopped stealing money from her employer during the eight months that she was embezzling thousands of dollars from Dirk Fruit, she had a very simple answer ready: she had simply not yet stolen enough.Manzila was employed as a cashier with Dirk Fruit.Unbeknown to the managers of the business, she had managed to get hold of the computer code of one of the managers, which she then used since early November last year to make entries on her cash register computer to show that various discounts had been granted to customers that were buying produce from Dirk Fruit.The customers however never received the discounts.Instead, the money that they effectively overpaid as a result of the discounts she had entered on transactions, found its way into her own pockets.She was arrested on July 22.Soon thereafter, some N$114 500 in cash which she still had available was returned to Amina Dirk, the complainant who had made the case against her.In terms of the sentence that Magistrate Mostert imposed on Manzila on Monday, more of the embezzled money is set to be returned to the rightful owner.The Magistrate ordered Manzila to compensate Mrs Dirk by transferring the house that she had bought with the stolen money into Mrs Dirk’s name, and to pay the transfer costs to boot.In addition, Manzila was sentenced to pay a combined fine of N$32 000, or to serve an effective term of 16 years’ imprisonment.The 61 fraud charges on which she pleaded guilty were taken together in three groups of 15 counts each, and one group of 16 charges, and in respect of each group of charges she was sentenced to a fine of N$8 000 or four years’ imprisonment.