R400 000 fraud in Knysna Fires afterburn

The adverse effects of the 2017 blaze are still manifesting in a variety of ways, the latest being in an alleged fraud case

A Knysna man has allegedly used the June 2017 Knysna Fires and the devastation it brought as a way in to landing himself a job as an accountant at a large building retailer before allegedly promptly starting to defraud his employer and customers of hundreds of thousands of rands.

Knysna BuildIt says they are picking up the pieces and mending relations with clients after their supposedly reputable and qualified accountant Lourens Oosthuizen allegedly embezzled about R400 000 from the company, right under their noses.

Attie Roeloffze, who co-owns the business with his son Adriaan, said the he was initially impressed by the accountant: “He always seemed to be on top of everything but around December and January certain things were just not adding up. They looked good on the books but the numbers somehow didn't match. So by the end of March, I hired an auditor to investigate and it took longer because he was really good at cooking books.”

After complaints by clients about their account balances, management scrutinised CCTV footage and found no evidence of the clients being in the store during the time that supposed transactions took place.

Findings by the auditor resulted in two allegations being made. The first was that the accountant does not, in fact, have a degree. The second was that after Oosthuizen was hired in September last year, he started stealing money from the company three days later. He allegedly took about R196 000 in cash and used the clients' store accounts to make purchases.

Roeloffze presented an email from the recruitment agent indicating in bold that the accountant is a qualified accountant with a “bachelor's degree focused in accounting from the University of South Africa”. This was stated in the covering letter accompanying Oosthuizen's CV.

“Naturally, the first thing one would do is call the recruitment agent who told us she believed he had the necessary qualifications and that she had called his references and they checked out,” said Roeloffze.

Knysna Plett Herald (KPH) called the recruitment agent Louna Griesel of Garden Route Recruitment Solutions, who said Oosthuizen told her that he had lost everything in the Knysna Fires, and that he was in the process of applying for new personal documentation which included proof of his qualifications. “The 7 June fires robbed a lot of people and left them petrified, so when he told me he lost everything in the fire I believed him and called his references and they checked out, even though they too didn't have a copy of his qualifications.”

On Friday 5 July, KPH spoke with Oosthuizen, who denied stealing the money, and said he never claimed to have a degree, and that Griesel was lying. When asked about his cover letter that clearly states he has a Unisa degree, he said this was a result of “copy and paste”, and added, “Business is looking bad for these people and they tried getting R200 000 out of me.

“The report you're referring to was compiled by someone on their payroll so they would obviously favour the company and not me,” Oosthuizen said.

Knysna Police have confirmed that the Roeloffzes have opened a case of fraud against Oosthuizen.