Cellucity discovered that one of its long-term employees stole over R70 million from the company over eight years. A former Cellucity employee has been ordered to pay over R50.68 millionafter a staggering revelation that she embezzled at least R70 million during her tenure spanning eight years. after a staggering revelation that she embezzled at least R70 million during her tenure spanning eight years.
Sharlene Phillipson-Garcia worked for the mobile company for approximately 16 years until she abruptly resigned in July 2024. At the time of her resignation, she was employed as an assistant to the finance manager. She resigned via email after being confronted with unusual and suspicious accounting entries for which she was responsible.
Cellucity later discovered that Phillipson-Garcia had stolen more than R70 million over a period of eight years, from May 2016 until shortly before her resignation. She did not deny the theft. Following the discovery, Cellucity launched an urgent application prohibiting withdrawals from two of her bank accounts and preventing the dissipation of nine immovable properties.
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At the time of the urgent application, Cellucity had only identified approximately R10.1 million of the theft. After further investigation, it emerged that she had in fact stolen at least R70 million. Cellucity then brought another application in the Western Cape High Court seeking the balance of more than R60 million.
Phillipson-Garcia argued that the court had already granted judgment for the R10.1 million and that Cellucity could not sue again. However, Acting Judge Gavin Cooper ruled that each act of theft constituted a separate cause of action and that Cellucity was therefore entitled to bring a further claim for the outstanding balance. She also claimed that more than R9.15 million of the stolen money had been used to pay Cellucity’s creditors during her employment.
Cellucity argued that this defence was doubtful because she only raised it for the first time in her answering affidavit in the second set of proceedings, despite having previously been urged to provide full disclosure. According to court documents, Phillipson-Garcia channelled funds through her company, Basic Blue Trading 450 (Pty) Ltd, and also used the stolen money to fund other family-controlled businesses, including Ohana Beauty and Wellness, controlled by her daughter, and Little Phase, owned by her niece. Phillipson-Garcia was a director of both companies.
She also used R6.2 million to buy a member’s interest and trading stock in another business, Rolling Thunder Distributors. Financial statements from these family businesses showed that Phillipson-Garcia had provided substantial interest-free loans, injecting more than R6.9 million into her daughter’s business and extending a R2 million loan to her niece’s business. During her employment she earned just over R41,500 per month, and Judge Cooper remarked that it would have been impossible for her to fund all these businesses on that salary.
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