Cape Town - A former shipping manager with the Viglietti Motor group is to go on trial in October on multiple fraud charges involving R2,9 million.
James Sbusiso Xulu, 38, made his final preliminary appearance on Wednesday, in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Bellville, Cape Town, before magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg.
The prosecutor, Sipokazi Makanda, told the court that the trial was to have commenced on Wednesday, but that she was not ready to proceed.
The reason was that she had been ill for a long time, and had not been able to work on the case.
At her request, the trial was scheduled for October 11.
According to the charge sheet, Viglietti Motors, in Roeland Street in the Cape Town CBD, is the official importer and agent for Ferrari and Masserati luxury motor vehicles in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Xulu was initially engaged by Viglietti Motors as the shipping manager in November 2009, and was later promoted to the post of shipping manager with the company Market Demand Trading, a subsidiary of the Viglietti group.
As shipping manager, he had to oversee the import and export of Ferrari and Masserati vehicles, and spares, with shipping providers and clearing agents.
He also managed the group’s various bond stores – a system within the South African tax regime where imported vehicles and spares are stored tax and duty-free.
The State alleges that, as shipping manager, he fraudulently diverted amounts totalling R2 955 043 from the group’s Nedbank account to his own private account at Standard Bank, between the years 2011 and 2013.
The prosecutor alleges that he did so by disguising payments into his own account, as payments to the company’s creditors.
He faces 34 counts of fraud, alternatively theft.
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