South African businessman Francois Heyns has been fined R50,000 for defrauding two European companies on fruit export deals.
Heyns pleaded guilty to defrauding Dutch company, Greenbox, and Russian company, Sunway, in transactions involving seedless grape.
South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority said in a statement yesterday [Monday] that the sentence was handed down by a Bellville, Cape Town, regional magistrate last week in terms of a plea agreement.
Heyns had been investigated since mid-2004 following complaints by the Dutch and Russian firms.
The NPA said that in 2003 the Dutch company, Greenbox, gave Heyns or his companies REM and Freshrite an advance of over R1.1m to supply 50,000 cartons of seedless grapes from the Upington district. The money was spent on unrelated items.
A similar scam, this time involving pears and a payment of R235,000, was committed the following year on the Russian company, Sunway.
Heyns pleaded guilty to two counts of theft. He was sentenced to a R50 000 fine or three years' jail, with another seven years suspended, and ordered to compensate the foreign firms. He was also sentenced to three years of correctional supervision.
The NPA said the sentence showed the authorities would not "play a spectator role" to criminals who wanted to ruin South Africa's image by defrauding from international traders.
