The trial against a former FNB employee, accused of stealing more than R400 000 from an elderly client, resumed in the Commercial Crimes Court in Gqeberha on Tuesday.
Leonie Stiemie was a branch administrator at FNB in Kirkwood at the time that the alleged offenses took place.
The state alleges that she stole money from 82-year-old Andries David Renken in 2012
.Under cross-examination, during a previous court appearance, Stiemie denied stealing Renken's money stating that employees at FNB had no knowledge of what was kept inside a deed box as a client would be alone in the room when storing their possessions.
On Tuesday, defense attorney Anlen Jarmen of Legal Aid SA called a Forensic Handwriting Examiner and Expert to the stand to testify.
Terry Almaleh studied and analyzed 44 different samples of Renken's signature and his initials to determine whether three signatures on certain documents had been forged.
Almaleh said when a signature is forged the person doing the forging would have to repress their handwriting and take on the habits of the person whose signature they were trying to copy.
In her findings, Almaleh deduced that Renken's signature could in all probabilities not have been forged.
Among others, she based her findings on the fact that none of the three alleged forgeries showed any signs of laboured writing.
"When a signature is forged you have to maintain the dimension and the spatial relationships of such a complex signature.
"To achieve all of the formations, good line quality, rhythm, speed, and even pen pressure, there is a strong probability that the signature is that of the same writer," she said.
The case continues.
