QC court clears ex-sales agent accused of stealing from firm

Saying that issued receipts corresponding to unremitted sales do not necessarily prove theft, a judge acquitted a former sales agent of the charge of stealing nearly 10 years ago from a beverage distributor more than P30,000 in cash collections.

Judge Germano Francisco Legaspi of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 77 said there was insufficient evidence to convict Salvador Vasquez, a sales agent who used to work for beer distributor Green Box Corp., for two counts of qualified theft.

According to Legaspi, the prosecution failed to establish that Vasquez stole from his former employers Kennedy and Cherilinda Altarejos who initially charged him with embezzling P9.6 million.

However, the P9.6-million qualified theft charge was junked and the information filed in court was for two counts of qualified theft. According to the couple, Vasquez took on Dec. 18, 2003, and Dec. 23, 2003, the P32,581 worth of payment collections that they had entrusted to him.

They said that Vasquez worked for them from May 2001 to December 2006 but in 2002, they noticed discrepancies between his payment collections and the amounts he remitted to the company after their accountant conducted an audit of the receipts issued by collection agents, particularly Vasquez.

The couple subsequently charged Vasquez with qualified theft, claiming he stole the money to enable his family to migrate overseas.

In his defense, Vasquez said the charges against him were a form of harassment. He also claimed that he was being made into a scapegoat to cover up the way the company had been mismanaged. He likewise denied that he issued the receipts presented by the couple in their complaint.

The judge, meanwhile, ruled that the evidence of the prosecution was insufficient in establishing Vasquez’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt, saying there was no proof that the accused pocketed the money as none of the prosecution witnesses testified that they actually saw him stealing the cash from his employers.

He also said the receipts presented were not adequate to support the qualified theft charge against the accused.