Former bookkeeper sentenced to ten years in jail for fraud

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Former bookkeeper Prishne Khan who defrauded Northern cricket union millions has been sentenced to ten years in jail by the Pretoria specialized commercial crimes court.

Khan faced sixty three counts of fraud that resulted in losses exceeding R3 million, she received a further 4-year imprisonment for theft amounting to R350,000 with the court ordering that these sentences run concurrently.

In March 2023, she was found guilty and the matter was postponed for the judgment on the sentence; however, Khan absconded, leading to a warrant for her arrest.

Over a year later, in August 30, 2024, she was located hiding, in a freezer at her new home in Nigel, leading to her arrest and court appearance on Monday.

According to NPA’s regional spokesperson, Lumka Mahanjana, the 37-year-old was employed as a bookkeeper from June 2015 to January 2017, and tasked with processing payments for various service providers.

Instead of executing her duties honestly, Mahanjana said she altered banking details on multiple invoices, replacing them with those of her husband and cousin and misappropriating R350,000 over six weeks from May to June 2016.

She stated that when questioned about her actions, Khan resigned from her position.

“Following her resignation, Khan became the finance manager at Customer Loyalty Consultant (PTY) Ltd from March 9, 2017 to September 30, 2017.

“This role provided her with access to the company’s bank account and banking systems.

“During her employment, Khan again manipulated customer banking details to funnel payments into accounts controlled by her husband and cousin.

“Despite her ability to process payments, she could not execute them immediately due to a token needed, which was the responsibility of another employee.

“After leaving the company in September 2017, another employee provided her with the token, allowing her to release payments totalling more than R3 million to herself from September 2017 until March 2018,” Mahanjana explained.

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Mahanjana highlighted that when delivering the sentence, Magistrate Du Preez agreed with the state, stating that Khan’s actions were motivated by greed rather than necessity.

“He noted that Khan did not demonstrate genuine remorse; she pleaded guilty only due to the realization of the consequences of her actions.

“Consequently, the court determined that the only suitable sentence in these circumstances was imprisonment,” she added.