Young mother of two jailed for bank fraud

A YOUNG former employee of Standard Bank Namibia who admitted she embezzled more than N$93 000 from the bank has been sentenced to an effective jail term of four years.

Janine Almaviva Snyders, a 26-year-old mother of two children, admitted guilt to 32 counts of fraud and one charge of theft when her trial started before Acting Judge Christie Liebenberg in the High Court in Windhoek last Monday. She was sentenced on Thursday.Snyders admitted that she committed fraud 30 times between October 11 2005 and February 4 2006, when she was employed at Standard Bank Namibia as a ledger clerk.She admitted that in that time, she embezzled a total of N$93 404,41 from the bank.She did this by transferring money from an account that the bank used to keep unposted deposits in before the money was to be transferred to the intended accounts, to either her own account, her father’s account, or an account in her former boyfriend’s name, to which she had access, Snyders admitted.The smallest single amount that she transferred into accounts to which she had access, was a mere N$0,50.The largest amount was N$14 347,58, which Snyders transferred on December 31 2005.Having eventually been caught out, Snyders was suspended from her job at the bank.While still on suspension, she then dug herself deeper into the hole that she already found herself in.On March 14 2006, she visited the office of a friend who was employed at the office of the Master of the High Court.There, Snyders admitted, she stole two cheques of the Master from her friend’s office.She deposited these cheques, totalling N$6 244,64, into her bank account on March 14 and 17 2006.”It was the situation that I was in that drove me to do that,” Snyders said about this theft of the cheques from the Master’s office when she testified in mitigation of sentence before Acting Judge Liebenberg on Monday.In at times teary testimony, she said she was experiencing financial difficulties, facing various unpaid bills, when she first decided to transfer money belonging to the bank and its customers into accounts to which she had access.When the first transfer, involving N$2 584,46, went unnoticed, she saw it was easy to transfer more money whenever there was a cash flow problem at home, Snyders testified.She claimed that she used all of the N$93 404,41 that she transferred to pay electricity and water bills, school fees for her children, to buy clothes for her children, to buy food, and to put down a deposit for a flat she started to rent in that time.While she was earning a monthly salary of about N$2 500 at the time, she started to rent a flat at a cost of N$3 600 a month, the court also heard.Snyders told the Acting Judge that the bank discovered her fraud when a client complained about a payment in amount of N$36 that had failed to appear on his account.That was one of the amounts that Snyders had transferred into accounts that she had access to.Snyders’s defence lawyer, Boris Isaacks, asked the court to impose a fine on her.He argued that Snyders was not driven by greed, but by need, and that she had shown remorse by pleading guilty and by having already repaid some N$11 495 to the bank.Acting Judge Liebenberg was not persuaded about Snyders’s motive, though.Noting that she had rented a flat of which the rent exceeded her monthly salary, he remarked that this showed that she had used the proceeds of her crimes to finance a lifestyle that was beyond her financial means.He added that he was not convinced that she had used all the money that she embezzled for the purposes claimed.Having regard to the sizes of the mounts transferred by Snyders, it was clearly shown that the theft of the money was motivated not by need, but by greed.Snyders abused the trust the bank had placed in her, and the crimes she committed were serious, premeditated and persistent, Acting Judge Liebenberg said.He sentenced her to five years’ imprisonment, of which two years were conditionally suspended for a period of five years, on the 30 bank fraud charges.For the theft of the Master’s cheques and the fraud Snyders committed when she paid these cheques into her own bank account, she was sentenced to a further one-year prison term.Acting Judge Liebenberg ordered that she sentences should be served consecutively.State advocate Orben Sibeya prosecuted.She was sentenced on Thursday.Snyders admitted that she committed fraud 30 times between October 11 2005 and February 4 2006, when she was employed at Standard Bank Namibia as a ledger clerk.She admitted that in that time, she embezzled a total of N$93 404,41 from the bank.She did this by transferring money from an account that the bank used to keep unposted deposits in before the money was to be transferred to the intended accounts, to either her own account, her father’s account, or an account in her former boyfriend’s name, to which she had access, Snyders admitted.The smallest single amount that she transferred into accounts to which she had access, was a mere N$0,50.The largest amount was N$14 347,58, which Snyders transferred on December 31 2005.Having eventually been caught out, Snyders was suspended from her job at the bank.While still on suspension, she then dug herself deeper into the hole that she already found herself in.On March 14 2006, she visited the office of a friend who was employed at the office of the Master of the High Court.There, Snyders admitted, she stole two cheques of the Master from her friend’s office. She deposited these cheques, totalling N$6 244,64, into her bank account on March 14 and 17 2006.”It was the situation that I was in that drove me to do that,” Snyders said about this theft of the cheques from the Master’s office when she testified in mitigation of sentence before Acting Judge Liebenberg on Monday.In at times teary testimony, she said she was experiencing financial difficulties, facing various unpaid bills, when she first decided to transfer money belonging to the bank and its customers into accounts to which she had access.When the first transfer, involving N$2 584,46, went unnoticed, she saw it was easy to transfer more money whenever there was a cash flow problem at home, Snyders testified.She claimed that she used all of the N$93 404,41 that she transferred to pay electricity and water bills, school fees for her children, to buy clothes for her children, to buy food, and to put down a deposit for a flat she started to rent in that time.While she was earning a monthly salary of about N$2 500 at the time, she started to rent a flat at a cost of N$3 600 a month, the court also heard.Snyders told the Acting Judge that the bank discovered her fraud when a client complained about a payment in amount of N$36 that had failed to appear on his account.That was one of the amounts that Snyders had transferred into accounts that she had access to.Snyders’s defence lawyer, Boris Isaacks, asked the court to impose a fine on her.He argued that Snyders was not driven by greed, but by need, and that she had shown remorse by pleading guilty and by having already repaid some N$11 495 to the bank.Acting Judge Liebenberg was not persuaded about Snyders’s motive, though.Noting that she had rented a flat of which the rent exceeded her monthly salary, he remarked that this showed that she had used the proceeds of her crimes to finance a lifestyle that was beyond her financial means.He added that he was not convinced that she had used all the money that she embezzled for the purposes claimed.Having regard to the sizes of the mounts transferred by Snyders, it was clearly shown that the theft of the money was motivated not by need, but by greed.Snyders abused the trust the bank had placed in her, and the crimes she committed were serious, premeditated and persistent, Acting Judge Liebenberg said.He sentenced her to five years’ imprisonment, of which two years were conditionally suspended for a period of five years, on the 30 bank fraud charges.For the theft of the Master’s cheques and the fraud Snyders committed when she paid these cheques into her own bank account, she was sentenced to a further one-year prison term.Acting Judge
Liebenberg ordered that she sentences should be served consecutively.State advocate Orben Sibeya prosecuted.