Cement boss up for fraud, theft

A FEW months after securing a multimillion-rand investment, a managing director of Kenako Concrete appeared briefly yesterday in the Port Elizabeth Commercial Crimes Court.

Jerome Perils made headlines last year when he received R71-million worth of funding from government programmes.

This included the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) Black Industrialist Programme and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC).

The money was used to develop a highly automated ready-mix concrete manufacturing company – Kenako Concrete – near the Coega quarry.

Charged with fraud, Perils is accused of stealing more than R300 000 from his former employer, Concrete 4 U. Perils was released on R1 000 bail and the case postponed to January 31.

Court papers say Perils allegedly told a former Concrete 4 U customer to pay R80 315.28 of an outstanding account into his bank account.

The state further alleges that between December 2009 and December 2010, Perils received two cash payments, one of R99 000 and another of R94 218.15, from two other customers, which were not banked into the company’s business accounts.

Perils faces an additional charge of fraud for what the state claimed was unlawfully, falsely and with the intention to defraud using the Concrete 4 U petrol card for the payment of fuel transactions totaling R47 167.19, which was not for business purposes.