Barclays case: Court dismisses appeal

Bellville - The Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court dismissed an application for leave to appeal a 15-year sentence, brought on Thursday by a former relationship manager at Barclays Wealth, a division of Absa.

John Julyan was jailed for 15 years last year, by magistrate Amrith Chabilall , for 39 counts of theft involving R15m, and one of money laundering.

He brought his application before magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg and said he wished to appeal against his sentence only, and that he agreed that he had been correctly found guilty.

Sonnenberg said the question was whether Julyan had a reasonable prospect of success with his appeal in the Western Cape High Court.

The court had to be satisfied that the High Court was likely to take a view different from that of magistrate Chabilall, and impose a less severe sentence, Sonnenberg said.

As relationship manager, Julyan had been responsible for the multi-million rand investments belonging to an Absa client.

The client was an Alzheimer's victim, and was no longer able to manage his affairs while Julyan was in control of his investments.

Between June 2005 and August 2008, Julyan had exploited the client's condition, and had frequently transferred huge amounts from the client's investments into his own and his wife's personal bank accounts.

Sonnenberg said Julyan had qualified for the minimum sentence of 15 years, for fraud or theft involving more than R500 000.

She said prosecutor Juan Agulhas had drawn the court's attention to the fact that Julyan had abused his position of trust, and that the thefts had happened over a period of three years.

The fact that millions of rands were involved gave Julyan very little hope of success on appeal, she said.

Sonnenberg said she was unable to fault magistrate Chabilall's judgment on the merits of the case, nor his reasons for imposing the minimum sentence.

She told Julyan: "Honesty is like integrity. There are no degrees of either."

She said Julyan had stolen from an elderly client over a period of three years.

She added: "You hand-picked your victim."

She ruled that the sentence imposed by Chabilall was "Fair, just and competent", and that there was no miscarriage of justice.