Sunday Tribune reports that three employees, including the manager, of a Durban jewellery store allegedly worked in cahoots over a long period of time to steal more than R3.2 million worth of jewellery pieces from their employer.

They were arrested and charged with multiple counts of theft related to the long inventory of missing items from the Premjis Jewellers branch at the Gateway Shopping Mall, and were granted bail of R20,000 each. Store manager Kailash Lala, Rashna Raghubar and Samendrie “Steffy” Pillai appeared before magistrate Ashwin Singh at the Durban Magistrate’s Court last week. It is believed that Lala, who has been in the employ of Premjis for more than 20 years, was the mastermind behind the alleged thefts. Raghubar and Pillai, both sales assistants, have been with the Gateway jewellery store for 12 and five years respectively. Together, the three were relied upon to ensure stock items were registered and accounted for on their internal system as well as their display and sale. In June, the director undertook a recount of all jewellery items in the store. He found there were a substantial number of items missing and that the acts of theft dated back to 2012. It is believed that in order to hide the theft of expensive stolen items, their price tags were removed and attached to cheaper jewellery to make it seem that the expensive items were still on hand in the store. More arrests are expected as police suspect that the three accused were working with others.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Mervyn Naidoo at Sunday Tribune

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