The owners of two Spar franchises who were defrauded out of more than R50 million took the stand in the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Gqeberha on Thursday.
Brothers, Paul and Peter Barnes gave evidence during pre-sentencing proceedings on Thursday against their former accountant and "friend", Jonathan Blow, who was found guilty of theft by the court.
The brothers suffered losses of R52 million after the money was stolen from their Sundridge and Despatch Spar stores between September 2020 and March 2022.
Blow worked at Spar's regional office before joining the family business.
"Josh [Jonathan] is a very bright guy and was like family," said Peter, as he started his testimony.
"Because he was so clever, I encouraged him to join us when we bought our first franchise in 1999," he told the court.
But, it was only when they hired another accountant last year to look at the books of the two franchises that the 'horror discovery' was made of the massive losses.
"The accountant immediately picked up large sums of money being moved from the businesses' bank accounts to a "call account", he said.
Barnes testified that they could not keep up financially and went into overdraft. He said on paper the business was booming, but that was not reflected in the bank accounts.
"There was a point where we were forced to cut bonuses and eventually we could not even pay salaries."
He said to help save his business he would go for months without paying himself a salary, testifying that due to the stress had even contemplated suicide.
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Brother Paul, became emotional as he told the court that he could not believe their good friend "Josh" betrayed them like that.
"We trusted him so much that my brother Peter even took him with his family on an overseas trip".
Paul told the court that he sat with Blow in many meetings pleading with him to help save his store, "but he kept on saying everything will get better".
He said there was a point in the desperation to save the business that Blow encouraged him to make more loans.
"Once again, he listened to him," Paul said.
Tears rolled down his face as he told the court of his near-death experience with Covid-19 in December 2022.
"I was on a ventilator for seven months, and he just kept stealing from me even on my death bed," he said.
Defence attorney Anlen Jarman told the court that she would like to bring Blow's psychologist as a witness and indicated that the psychologist would be available in January 2024.
The case was postponed to 16 January 2024 for the psychologist's report and sentencing.
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