Property auction scammer awaits day in court
A Durban attorney and a relative, charged with duping prospective home buyers out of millions of rand in a property scam, were met with angry stares from their alleged victims when their trial failed to start in the Durban High Court yesterday.
Attorney Binesh Singh and his wife's sister, Urika Lucken, have been charged with racketeering and several counts of fraud.
The indictment states Singh was the manager of an illegal enterprise operated from his law firm, in which he, Lucken and another woman, Raisa Alli, conspired to defraud people by claiming they could facilitate buying homes for them.
About 40 people gave Alli money, amounting to about R3 million, for deposits or as the purchase prices for homes between October 2006 and August 2008. But the homes were never for sale and none of the buyers recovered their money.
Alli pleaded guilty to her role in the enterprise in June 2009 and was jailed for six years.
In her plea, she claimed that she, Singh and Lucken had entered into an agreement whereby Alli would be given a list of properties on auction, and it was her job to find buyers. Alli took money from the buyers, deducted her "commission" and then transferred the remainder to Singh and Lucken.
The victims of the scam, who were in the gallery, were bitterly disappointed when the case was adjourned yesterday because Singh requested time to secure funds to brief an advocate for the trial.
State advocate Yuri Gangai, who had been ready to proceed with the trial, agreed to the postponement after he and Singh's advocate, Jimmy Howse, met Judge President Chiman Patel.
Gangai said the State was disappointed with the postponement as all the witnesses were in court.
"Some of the witnesses travelled from outside the province to be here. It has been three years since the incidents and this case has been on the high court roll for nine months. Some of claimants have died, others have been left destitute or in dire financial circumstances."
The case was adjourned to December 14. Singh and Lucken are out on bail.
The Mercury
Posted at 08:39AM Nov 01, 2011 by Editor in Auctions |