Inside Job? Six Women In Court Over Multi-Million Rand Jewellery Theft

Six women, including managers and sales representatives from Premjis Jewellers, are on trial in the Durban Magistrate’s Court for allegedly stealing jewellery worth more than R3.2 million.

The accused — Nailash Lala (61), Reshmar Raghubar (39), Samendrie Pillay (30), Yagna Ramdeen (29), Kamentha Pillai (28), and Sashmila Rajkumar (34) — have all pleaded not guilty to the charges. They were arrested in September 2023 and later released on bail of R20,000 each.

Director Details Alleged Long-Running Scheme

The State’s case began with testimony from Vishnu Pather, who told the court that the alleged theft was uncovered in June 2023.

According to Pather, a sales representative raised concerns after noticing that three high-end watches were missing, prompting an internal investigation. The probe allegedly uncovered irregularities dating back to 2018.

“When Sewpersad raised the alarm on the theft, it triggered an internal investigation that unveiled a shocking manipulation of stock records. High-value items were allegedly mislabelled with low-value tags, and missing items were cleverly omitted from inventory sheets,” Pather recounted.

The court heard that the alleged scheme may have run for several years before being detected.

Six Women Deny Claims, Challenge Evidence

Several of the accused have strongly denied the allegations and questioned the credibility of the evidence presented.

Lala argued that she was not consistently present during the period in question and disputed the company’s stock control processes.

“During the Covid-19 pandemic, I never worked, and once I returned, the business continued without proper stocktaking,” she said, adding that her constitutional rights were violated during the investigation.

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Rajkumar also rejected the accusations, claiming she left the company due to alleged mistreatment.

“The complainant is being malicious in charging for the alleged theft. I never stole anything,” she stated.

Ramdeen maintained her innocence, highlighting her part-time employment and raising concerns about how investigators handled her personal information.

“I was arrested less than two months after my co-accused because I refused to falsely implicate anyone,” she said.

The trial is ongoing as the court continues to hear evidence.