OWNER of Club Travel Honeydew,
Wilco van Eeden, has been sentenced
to a direct term of imprisonment of 10
years by the South African court, which
found him guilty of embezzlement of
millions of rands.
In December 2011, Club Travel
head office became aware of the
alleged misappropriation of funds
and fraudulent activity in the trading
of the independent franchise. The
franchisor, which quickly established
a crisis team working 24/7 to assist
affected customers, set about taking
legal action against Wilco with the help
of Christo Snyman, director of Mazars
Forensic Services. Wilco was charged
with fraud and theft to amount of
R4,3 million in March last year.
After three years of Club Travel
investing time, energy and huge
amounts of money, Wilco has finally
been convicted. He was taken into
custody on November 13 and will serve
10 years in prison, without the option
of paying a fine.
“Justice has been served,” says
Jo Fraser, Club Travel’s franchise
director. “Club Travel has zero tolerance
for fraudulent activity. This is the
outcome we were hoping for.”
An observer in court said the
Magistrate said that the accused’s
actions bordered on betrayal as he
had operated a franchise, and as a
manager he had been entrusted
with large amounts of money
that he embezzled.
Furthermore the Magistrate said
the accused was not truthful when he
claimed that he had given to charities
but that he stole the money because of
his low self-image and his endeavours
to impress others with money that
was not his to spend. The presiding
officer further stated that none of the
sponsorships were for the poor.
Even though the defence counsel
argued that the accused was not a
career criminal, the Magistrate
stated that the accused’s
actions were not spontaneous
and that he had the time
and opportunity to reconcile
himself with the fact that his
actions were unlawful (as
this was over a period of
12 months) but proceeded
with the embezzlement of
funds none the less. He also
slated the accused in that,
despite the fact the criminal
activities were discovered early
in 2012, the accused had not
to date lifted a finger to try
and make any repayments.
The Magistrate did say in
favour of the accused that he
had taken responsibility, had
owned up and co-operated
with the forensic team and the
State.
“Without the detailed
forensic report that was put
together by Christo Snyman
with the help of the Club
Travel team, we may not have
seen this outcome,” Jo says.
“Christo and his team did a
sterling job.
Charmaine van Niekerk
from Club Travel was also
instrumental in ensuring this
conviction.
“We’ve learnt so much
from this process. It’s been
incredibly difficult on many
levels but it’s taught us to be
even more focused on our
processes and procedures.
Once Wilco’s activities
were discovered, we took
immediate action to deal with
the situation, pulling together
files of information. The team
that worked on this case
were fantastic. Without them,
we would not have seen this
result,” Jo says.
