A former senior manager of Old Mutual was found guilty in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court on Friday for embezzling R1 million from the company.

Monica Boniswa Ntloko, 42, was found guilty on five counts of fraud and one count of money laundering by Magistrate Amrith Chabillal.

Chabillal called for a probation officer’s report before deciding her sentence and postponed the case until October 26.

She was released on warning because her teenage daughter has cerebral palsy and needed Ntloko’s care.

Chabillal told Ntloko that he would normally have kept her in custody until sentence was passed, but due to her circumstances he would extend her freedom of movement until her next appearance.

Ntloko was in the employ of Old Mutual as an assistant accountant and had been the manager of the company’s new-products division.

Her duties had included the authorisation of policy payouts and the safe-keeping of files pertaining to such payments.

The files in question were kept on her desk in an office without a key to the door.

Chabillal said Ntloko had used some of these files to fraudulently duplicate payments already made and unlawfully authorised payments into bank accounts she had created.

He said the evidence had been predominantly circumstantial but the case presented by prosecutor Juan Agulhas had been overwhelming.

Chabillal said the files relating to the fraudulent payments had “disappeared” but it was clear from the evidence that she had deliberately removed them herself.

He said her fraudulent transactions had required careful planning and the court had no doubt that Ntloko had stolen in excess of R1 million—of which only R20,000 had been recovered.

The only question, he said, was whether she had committed the more serious offence of fraud.

Fraud involves misrepresentation and by authorising the fraudulent payments she had misrepresented to officials involved with policy payments that the payments in question had been lawfully authorised.

Defence attorney Haley Lawrence suggested a short period of imprisonment, followed by house arrest.