‘Remorseful’ auctioneer pleads guilty
Moss tries to pin blame on estranged wife
IN 1984 a Port Elizabeth auctioneer was sentenced to five lashes for theft. Today, 32 years later, the whipping seems to have been forgotten as he faces the gavel for defrauding his employer and its clients out of R1-million.
Although Vincent Moss, 51, pleaded guilty yesterday to 13 counts of fraud, claiming he was remorseful for his actions, he tried to pin much of the blame on his estranged wife, who he said had a gambling problem.
The notion did not sit well with the prosecution, with state advocate Lise Keech putting it to him that it would be rather pricey for anyone to maintain a wife and a girlfriend at the same time.
Moss faces a prescribed minimum sentence of 15 years in prison.
He was employed as general manager of the popular Aucor South auctioneers for more than 15 years before his arrest in September last year.
It emerged in court how he stole just over R1-million between November 2013 and March last year.
He sold office furniture, forklifts and vehicles on behalf of clients, but pocketed the cash.
Yesterday, his attorney, Alwyn Griebenow, told the Port Elizabeth Commercial Crimes Court Moss had found himself in financial difficulty due to his employer not paying him his full dividends on time.
Sometimes he was forced to wait up to 14 months to be paid what was due to him.
“My remuneration agreement was based on a monthly salary and quarterly 10% profit share,” Moss said in his plea statement read out by Griebenow.
“I had to send requests, threats, make phone calls and send e-mails to receive payment.”
Then, in about February 2012, Moss and his wife began experiencing marital problems. He eventually moved out of the family home in October 2013, shortly before his son – the youngest of four children – moved away to university.
“[Moss] upkept two households. In the beginning he was able to do it, but eventually he could no longer keep up . . . his wife cost him a lot of money,” Griebenow said.
He said Moss’s estranged wife found out about the thefts and started threatening him that should he not continue to give her money, she would report him to Aucor.
He alleged his wife would gamble the money at the casino. “His wife manipulated him.” Griebenow said Moss should be treated as a first offender and that he had shown remorse by pleading guilty and not wasting the court’s time.
Keech, meanwhile, said pleading guilty was not always a sign of remorse, but was often because an accused had no other option.
In addition, she said, if Moss was so unhappy with Aucor he should have resigned, not resorted to stealing.
“Having a wife and a girlfriend at the same time . . . upkeeping two households . . . must have been an expensive exercise.”
Keech said the only suitable sentence was one of 15 years in prison.
Magistrate Lionel Lindoor will hand down sentence on January 26. Moss’s bail of R2 000 was extended.