NATIONAL NEWS - A former bursar at Cambridge High School in East London has been sentenced to six years in prison for stealing R2.3 million from the school over a period of five years, DispatchLive has reported.
56-year-old Merle Laity was convicted of eight counts of theft and one of fraud in May, over crimes that she was first caught committing in 2009. She was once a learner at the school she went on to defraud.
The administrator was found guilty of crimes including:
- Stealing R132,000 from funds raised by the school’s PTA fundraisers
- Stealing R312,195 that learners has paid for school blazers, badges, school camps and more
- Stealing R178,000 that the school received for learners’ photographs
- Stealing R5,000 from funds collected for the school’s matric dance
Laity was assistant to another disgraced former bursar from the school, Maria “Gerda” de Wet, who committed similar crimes to the tune of over R3 million, and was sentenced to eight years in prison.
