Young dad’s greed gets him eight years

A young father’s desperation to buy nappies for his children quickly turned to greed, with the man, just 22 at the time, ultimately stealing R4.3-million from his employer.

Barend Kleynhans then adopted a myriad of lies and deception to justify his extravagant lifestyle of fancy clothes, expensive holidays and flashy cars to his colleagues, family and friends.

A magistrate said yesterday that he found no joy in sentencing Kleynhans to an effective eight years in prison. Kleynhans, employed as a bookkeeper at the time, pleaded guilty in the Port Elizabeth Commercial Crimes Court in April to stealing more than R4.3-million from Renroc Agencies (Pty) Ltd between October 2013 and July 2015.

Kleynhans was in charge of depositing the firm’s petty cash, but it was later found he had pocketed the money and created false records of the deposits.

The divorced father of two children, aged four and five, said he had first started to steal to buy nappies for them because he was too proud to ask his family for financial assistance.

He said he suffered from anxiety and a borderline personality disorder. But magistrate Lionel Lindoor said the motive seemed to have been greed.

“You wanted a luxurious lifestyle for yourself and your family and most of the money seems to have been spent on cars, holidays and branded clothing.”

Lindoor said he took into account that Kleynhans was a first offender who had pleaded guilty, but given his psychological disorder, he was not sure if he was capable of exhibiting true remorse.

He said the theft had taken place over 22 months and it could therefore not be said that he had acted on impulse. “You did, however, have ample opportunity to desist with your criminal conduct, but continued to progressively steal larger and larger amounts.

“You thus engaged in a deliberate campaign of enriching yourself at the expense of your employer,” Lindoor said, adding that the business had suffered severe financial strain after the thefts.

He said when coming to a just sentence, he had reminded himself of the three aims of punishment, being retribution, prevention and rehabilitation.

“It gives me no joy to impose sentence on you today, but justice demands that now that you have been convicted, a sentence would have to be passed.”

He sentenced Kleynhans to 12 years in prison, four suspended for five years.