30-year-old woman stole R1 million from her employer by changing the banking details to her personal account number

Amy Mellisa Van Heerden was sentenced to six years and six months’ direct imprisonment for fraud and money laundering.

Van Heerden was arrested on Friday, 27 February 2026, by the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team.

This arrest followed an investigation into the allegations of fraud and money laundering against her. She was released on R10,000 bail.

Van Heerden was an employee of Nashua Kathu, where she changed her employer’s banking details to her personal account number.

Her actions caused Nashua to suffer a loss of over R1 million, as business clients deposited funds due to the business into her account.

On 25 September 2026, the Kathu Magistrates’ Court found Van Heerden guilty on the charges of fraud and money laundering.

• On the counts of fraud, she was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment, of which two years were suspended for a period of five years.

• On the count of money laundering, she was sentenced to two years’ direct imprisonment.

• She was also found guilty of theft and sentenced to six months’ direct imprisonment.

She will ultimately serve six years and six months’ direct imprisonment for her financial crimes.

The Provincial Head of the Hawks in the Northern Cape, Major General Stephen Mabuela, applauded the investigating and prosecuting teams.

He praised the team’s resilience in fighting crime and bringing the perpetrators to justice.

Employees stealing from their employers

ENSafrica forensics director Steven Powell previously said fraud, corruption, and theft by employees are rife at companies across South Africa.

Another example, apart from Van Heerden, is Hildegard Steenkamp, a former Medtronic employee who made headlines in 2023.

Steenkamp started her 12-year crime spree by stealing R24,000 in December 2004. It escalated and culminated in over half a billion dollars in theft before she was arrested in 2017.

The scale of her theft shocked the country, but Powell said it is common for employees to steal from their employers.

“We are flooded with cases of fraud committed by all levels of employees, including CEOs, CFOs, financial directors, and regular employees,” he said.

Theft, kickbacks, and corruption occur across all operational areas, including accounts payable, finance, and procurement.

Powell shared another example where the perpetrator was a very popular employee of a company which extensively used courier services.

She worked on the company’s accounts payable team, where she created a fictitious courier company named after an existing courier service.

The only things which existed for the fictitious courier company were a letterhead and a bank account.

“She committed this crime for 20 years. She paid herself R70,000 for 20 years, and nobody picked it up,” he said.

The company eventually discovered the crime by doing an audit comparing vendor bank accounts with those of its employees.

They discovered that the fictitious courier company had the same bank account as the employee, which ended the stealing spree.

Powell advised all companies to assess their fraud risk and conduct proactive checks to identify employees who are stealing money.

These checks should include lifestyle audits and an analysis of the vendor database and bank accounts of suppliers, and match them against employee accounts.