Former Nedbank manager Kevin Kaschula, who stands accused of stealing close to 500 Krugerrand coins belonging to an East London tycoon who stored them in a Nedbank vault, has kept 80 coins in his personal safety box for 20 years and “forgot” to hand them over to the owner, the East London Magistrate’s Court heard on Wednesday.
Kaschula faces theft charges over 480 gold Krugerrands, valued at R7.2m, belonging to multimillionaire EV Krull.
In the dock on Wednesday, Kaschula told regional magistrate Ignatius Kitching that in 1995 and 1996, he bought 80 coins on behalf of Krull and stored in three different envelopes in his own personal safety box when Krull allegedly failed to collect them.
He said at the time he wrote to Krull informing him of the availability of the coins. Krull, when the trial resumed in 2017, told the court he forgot about them for 20 years and that they had remained with Kaschula until 2015 when he noticed more than 400 of his coins were missing.
“He was informed about 20 years ago that there were 80 coins waiting to be picked up by him, but he had told the court he forgot to pick them up for 20 years. I also forgot about them,” said Kaschula.
Krull, in his testimony in 2017, told the court he had bought 300 coins before the 1994 democratic dispensation.
Krull further told the court that after he entered into an agreement with Nedbank, he then purchased more than 400 additional coins from them by the end of 1995, which they kept in their vault.
Krull further told the court that in May 2015, on his 80th birthday, he took his older son to the bank to show him the coins, but was “disturbed” when he noted there were about 300 to 400 coins missing.
Only 320 coins were found.
Krull had told the court a few weeks later, Kaschula called to inform the family that he had found a safety box containing 80 coins belonging to them.
State prosecuting advocate Wayne Japhta argued that the only reason Kaschula opened up about the coins was that he knew there was going to be an investigation.
Japhta told the court that every time someone accessed the vault there were registers that had to be signed – but on the three occasions when Kaschula had placed the envelopes with Krull’s coins in them in his own box, there were no records.
It is the state’s case that Kaschula could have conspired with other bank employees who had keys to the vault...