Two members of the once-powerful Georgiou family will be appearing in the Kariega Magistrate’s Court today on charges of malicious damage to property and theft of a motor vehicle.

Yvette Georgiou (54) and her son George (27), were arrested in Kariega and brought before the court on Thursday, 27 August 2026. Police spokesperson Captain André Beetge confirmed the arrests and said the pair was remanded in custody pending a formal bail application scheduled for today (Monday).

The court appearance marks yet another chapter in the troubled saga of a family that once commanded headlines for their lavish lifestyle, sprawling business empire, and bruising legal battles with the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality over their Kragga Kamma Road property.

Yvette Georgiou’s husband, the late Philip Georgiou, was the family patriarch and a controversial Gqeberha businessman and second-hand car dealer.

The rise and fall of the Georgiou family

The Georgiou name was once synonymous with luxury and ambition in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth). Philip and Yvette Georgiou built a sprawling business portfolio that spanned a second-hand car dealership in Fernglen, a boutique hotel and spa, and a limousine service operated under the banner of Georgiou International on Kragga Kamma Road.

According to The Herald and the Daily Dispatch, the couple owned more than 30 luxury vehicles, including several limousines used to chauffeur guests, as well as personal high-end cars such as an Aston Martin DB9 Bond Edition, Mercedes-Benzes, and BMWs. Their Kragga Kamma Road property was developed into a hotel and wedding venue complex, complete with a gym, a pool, an enclosed patio, and a chapel — all reportedly built without approved building plans, in violation of the National Building Regulations and Standards Act.

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality took legal action, and in July 2015, the Port Elizabeth High Court ordered the Georgious to demolish all structures deemed unlawful. It was ruled that the continued use and construction of the buildings without approved plans constituted criminal offences, The Herald reported. The family’s appeals — including to the Constitutional Court — were all dismissed.

The family’s financial decline accelerated from 2020. In February that year, The Herald reported that luxury goods were attached at the Georgious’ Fernglen dealership by a sheriff of the court. By June 2020, the Port Elizabeth High Court had granted judgments against the couple for failed bond commitments totalling over R32 million. A sheriff dispatched to the Kragga Kamma property to attach 33 vehicles valued at more than R11 million found most had vanished; only a Range Rover and a Datsun Go were recovered.

In September 2021, Yvette Georgiou was sequestrated by the Gqeberha High Court after failing to settle debts exceeding R35.4 million owed to Grobank, The Herald reported. In February 2022, the three Kragga Kamma Road properties were sold at a public auction for R6.37 million — in a sale that lasted just seven minutes.