An accounts secretary has been sentenced for defrauding a law firm trust account of more than R13 million. The Bellville Commercial Crimes Court has sentenced fraudster and money launderer Alwena Smith to an effective seven years’ direct imprisonment after she defrauded a Stellenbosch law firm of more than R13 million.
Smith was convicted after entering into a plea and sentencing agreement with the State. She faced 171 counts of fraud, 171 counts of interference with data and four counts of money laundering.
The court sentenced her to 12 years’ direct imprisonment for the 171 counts of fraud, taken together with five years suspended for five years on condition that she is not convicted of fraud, theft, or corruption.
For the 171 counts of interference with data, the court imposed a sentence of 12 months’ direct imprisonment, wholly suspended for five years on condition that she is not convicted of interference with data.
She was further sentenced to 12 years’ direct imprisonment for four counts of money laundering, which were wholly suspended for five years on condition that she is not convicted of money laundering in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act 121 of 1998.
The court ordered the sentences to run concurrently and declared Smith unfit to possess a firearm.
According to the plea and sentencing agreement, Smith, 53, worked as a senior accounts secretary at a law firm specialising in notaries, conveyancing, estate law and third-party claims. She was employed from March 2006 until she was dismissed in May 2018.
Her responsibilities included managing the day-to-day income and expenditure of receipting monies and carrying out regular banking duties. She had access to the firm’s electronic computer systems and files.
Clients would pay monies or retainers into the law firm’s trust account. Whenever work was performed on a client’s file, payment would be deducted from the client’s account or retainer held in the trust bank account.
As part of her duties, Smith was required to make electronic payments and had been assigned an internet profile on the law firm’s trust bank account to pay the firm’s debtors and creditors.
Using her internet profile and that of a colleague, Smith created fictitious profiles on the trust account and made 171 transfers into her private bank account.
An investigation later revealed that 171 illegal cheques had been withdrawn from different client files she had access to. Authorities established that she stole R13,267,096.59 between January 2016 and 2 April 2018.
On the 171 charges of interfering with data, Smith created false beneficiaries to conceal payments to her private bank accounts. She deliberately made spelling mistakes when creating false beneficiaries of existing clients so that the law firm’s banking system would not detect that the beneficiaries already existed.
As part of concealing her fraudulent activities, she paid back R6.5 million to the law firm’s trust account.
Before starting her fraudulent scheme, Smith registered a company, Garda TeK (Pty) Ltd, of which she was the sole director. Some of the stolen money was paid into the company’s bank accounts.
Other payments were made into the bank accounts of her husband and daughter. Smith later admitted that she had lied to them, claiming the funds came from an inheritance. They were cleared after she confessed that they were not aware of her fraudulent activities.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) welcomed the sentence.
Eric Ntabazalila, Regional Communications Manager for the Western Cape at the National Prosecuting Authority, issued the statement on 6 March 2026.
