An Eastern Cape man who swindled millions of rand from a trust fund and its two beneficiaries has pleaded guilty to theft totalling more than R14m.
Addo resident Harold Henry, 47, stood silently in the dock of the specialised commercial crimes court in Gqeberha on Wednesday as his Legal Aid SA-appointed lawyer, Anlen Jarman, read his guilty plea into the record.
In his written statement, Henry admitted that he knew the difference between right and wrong and understood the charges against him.
He was arrested on February 24 and charged with stealing R14,092,501 from the Strathmore Farm Trust and its beneficiaries, James and Suenay Whyte, between March 2019 and December 8 2021, while he was employed as an office administrator and bookkeeper.
Initially appointed to assist Suenay, Henry later took over her duties, including paying all creditors and employees of the trust, balancing books via the Pastel accounting system and paying wages through the Oranjelone Wage programme.
Henry also had full access to the online banking system for the trust’s bank account.
“During the period March 2019 to December 2021, I , on various occasions, stole from the trust and/or the Whytes,” Henry said in his statement.
He said created EFTs from the trust’s bank account to his own account with the payment beneficiaries reflected as known creditors of the trust.
Henry further admitted to abusing an arrangement the trust had with a business in Kirkwood, Siyanceda CC, previously operating as CJ & K Geyer, to pay out weekly cash wages on its behalf to casual workers and employees.
Zamaxolo “Eric” Ngxukymeshe, an employee on the farm, received his wages weekly via EFT.
“I put Eric’s name on the cash receiving wage list at Siyanceda, and I then signed for the said wages on behalf of Eric, at Siyanceda and misappropriated the said cash for my own use.
“I, through EFTs, paid additional amounts weekly into Siyanceda’s account and, pretending that the trust needs cash, withdrew said amounts and misappropriated them for my own use,” he admitted.
Henry did not disclose what he had done with the funds.
The matter was postponed to November 16 for the state to obtain pre-sentencing reports and for the defence to acquire further expert reports.
Though the state had applied for Henry’s R20,000 bail money to be retained by the state, magistrate Lionel Lindoor found in favour of the defence, who argued that he did not pose a flight risk as he had attended every court date and from the onset intended to plead guilty.
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