A 37-year-old convicted gambling addict has been denied leave to appeal her sentence.
Cindy Saunders was sentenced last month after she was found guilty of defrauding her previous employers of close to R17million.
Saunders worked as an export controller at two companies, Nicholson Shipping and SK Boyz, between 2017 and 2018, where she stole money and spent it at casinos. She also spent the monies paying off her debt at loan sharks and on online gambling applications.
DispatchLive reported that Saunders was sentenced to nine years imprisonment.
Saunders then acquired the services of a new legal team to apply for leave to appeal. However, Durban Magistrate's Court Commercial Crime Court magistrate Garth Davis denied the application, adding that her legal representatives had not considered how her children would be impacted by her imprisonment and that they were placing too much emphasis on Saunders' personal circumstances rather than the seriousness of her crimes.
Last week, a Centurion bookkeeper has been sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment after she was found guilty of defrauding a company of R2.5 million.
During court proceedings, the State detailed how Dianne de Beer made payments into her personal bank account.
According to the National Prosecuting Authorities, the 49-year-old started committing the offences in 2016, a year after her employment.
"Her duties included capturing supplier invoices, loading payments on the online banking facility and supplier reconciliation with supplier statements,” explained National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana.
She said De Beer made 44 payments, meant for suppliers, to her bank account. Using the proceeds of the crime, she purchased a BMW for herself, a MINI Cooper for her daughter and funded her daughter’s holiday in Bali.
IOL