Maun Magistrate Keneilwe Kgoadi has sentenced former Security Systems employee Sylvester Bonkalotse to 12 months in imprison for stealing by servant.
The 52-year-old who pleaded not guilty to the offence is said to have created a ghost employee on his wife’s name and withdrew a monthly salary from the company between March 2015 and July 2017 when he got busted.
When delivering the sentence, Kgoadi said the accused person was mature enough to know that what he was doing was wrong. She added that Bonkalotse was also not morally disciplined to restrain himself despite the trust he was given by the company
“Stealing by servant is an aggravated form of theft on its own and if employees were allowed to have access on company funds just for them to stay afloat many businesses would have collapsed,” Kgoadi pointed out.
The magistrate further added that Bonkalotse had sufficient time to rectify his mistakes indicating that the company had always been willing to reconcile with him on conditions that the accused person pays back its money in full instead of installments.
“The accused person did not see any wrong and was not remorseful on what he had done, instead he tried to justify his actions,” she revealed.
In mitigation, Bonkalotse prayed for a non-custodial sentence as he told court that he has minor children of whom the youngest is two years old while the oldest is doing standard four. He further pleaded that their mother is in Shakawe receiving cancer medication therefore sending him to prison will leave them stranded with no one to look after.
Bonkalotse further pleaded that he committed the offence due to the fact that his employers did not fulfill their promise of increasing his salary after promoting him to a supervisor position. He added that at the time he desperately needed the money to take care of his wife who was suffering from ill health.
Bonkalotse will serve a one year sentence dating back from August 22 when his bail was revoked.
Before the same court a 40 year old man of Botshabelo who is accused for seriously injuring his girlfriend last weekend has been denied bail.
The accused person, Oagile Moloi is alleged to have on the 4th September 2022 unlawfully hit Keletso Ntema with a metal square tube on the head thereby causing grievous harm.
When pleading for the accused person to be denied bail the Investigating Officer (IO) Constable Relebonye Johane argued that they have not yet recorded a statement from the complainant as she is currently in a critical condition. The State feared that the accused person may interfere with investigations.
In his bail arguments, the accused person submitted that he is the sole care taker of the complainant’s children therefore remanding him will disadvantage them. Moloi will appear for status update on the 16 September 2022.
