Public health official Pumeza Schumacher, who stole hundreds of thousands of rand meant for litter-pickers to clean Nelson Mandela Bay wards, will have to wait until December 6 to be sentenced.
The former community liaison officer, who is out on bail, pleaded guilty to one count of fraud and was convicted immediately in September.
She stole money to the tune of R439,398.23 over four years.
Schumacher created ghost litter-pickers and set up two accounts for the money to be paid into.
Invoices detailing how Schumacher spent the money on clothes and entertainment, among other things, were presented to the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Tuesday as arguments were made in mitigation and aggravation of sentencing.
In the state’s heads of argument, prosecutor Leigh-Anne Pillay-Sehlale said the crime was committed in a deliberate and persistent manner.
“The devious actions were perpetrated regularly over a period of four years.
“The accused had plenty of opportunity to reconsider her criminal actions during this time, even going on maternity leave at a stage during which she was removed from the workplace environment.”
She argued that Schumacher committed the theft while the municipality had placed complete trust in her and she chose to betray that.
“This was not only fraud committed on the spur of the moment to fulfil a pressing and financial need, but was carefully contrived criminal activity in terms of which the accused, over a lengthy period, took a very large amount of money from her employer.”
Schumacher created two bank accounts which she used “solely for receiving the illicit money and that no other money was received in these accounts”.
“The accused was fully aware of the loopholes in the system and took full advantage of the situation.
“She exacerbates the issue of her dishonesty further by stating on the record, that others in the department were doing it,” Pillay-Sehlale argued.
“The accused committed the offence out of greed and not out of need.”
Schumacher earned a salary of more than R20,000 a month and had a car allowance to pay for her VW Touran while her house was fully paid for by her husband.
“Her greed was such that she placed her employer at risk by defrauding a budget that was set aside for the poorest of the poor – litter-pickers who earned meagre wages.
“She admitted that she used the defrauded monies for frivolous things – clothes, entertainment and the like.”
In her evidence, Schumacher submitted that she did not take full responsibility for her crime and that others in the department were doing it, the loopholes were there and managers did not check.
“The accused had the opportunity to come clean with her employer when she was confronted but chose to resign and, well-knowing that she had defrauded hundreds and thousands from the employer, put the employer through an arbitration process claiming constructive dismissal,” Pillay-Sehlale said.
The municipality’s labour relations official, Frank du Plessis, said Schumacher resigned in November 2017 before any disciplinary action could be taken against her.
“She was responsible for coordinating pay schedules coming from the various depots dealing with litter-picking.
“Because she resigned, she was not charged [by the municipality] and could therefore not be found guilty.”
Schumacher is cited in the municipality’s draft forensic report by PricewaterhouseCoopers into the irregular appointments of litter-pickers.
Investigators found that she had a clear understanding of the appointment process of all ward-based litter-pickers.
She was also responsible for checking that there were no mistakes on spreadsheets before sending them to the accounts department.
Schumacher started working for the municipality as a depot clerk in 2007 and was promoted to community liaison officer in 2013.
She was also responsible for uploading time sheets on the department’s financial system.