Avusa Media Ltd payroll administrator Laurence van Tonder, who allegedly defrauded the company out of more than R5-million in three years,

Avusa Media Ltd payroll administrator Laurence van Tonder, who allegedly defrauded the company out of more than R5-million in three years, has appeared in the Port Elizabeth commercial crimes court.Van Tonder, 38, of Hampshire Road, Sherwood, Port Elizabeth, reportedly pocketed R1653254 of the money himself, but the state has charged him with taking the entire amount of R5075552.He is accused of 94 counts of fraud, committed between November 2005 and December last year.He was not asked to plead and no evidence was led. The case was postponed to September 15, possibly to plead to the charges. Van Tonder is out on warning.His duties at Newspaper House included capturing the monthly payroll on the electronic payroll package system and reconciling monthly payments to Discovery Health.Van Tonder allegedly opened four FNB accounts in his name. A fifth one was opened at Nedbank for his life partner.
He then allegedly entered inflated payments on the transfer request forms for payment to Discovery Health, and altered the banking details to reflect these amounts, misrepresenting to Avusa Media Ltd that the bank accounts belonged to Discovery Health.