We were one of the numerous people who were scammed out of our holiday up the West Coast this past December. We even met the “so called” agent “Dessie” at the complex where we were going to stay. The property is 16 On Main in Port Owen.
She was friendly and came across as a decent person. We confirmed that we would pay the deposit the next day and this was done. Closer to our date of arrival I tried to contact her and got no response to my messages. It was then that I became concerned that we had been scammed. The amount we believe she has scammed from various people is about R1 million.
Subsequently, we heard that she had been arrested and was spending time in prison. She appeared in court in Vredendal on 20 December and was given bail of R2 000, despite a case made against her for all the people she had scammed.
Apparently she has a long history of scamming people out of their hard earned money, from cars to paintings. The history goes back as far as 2014. She is due to appear in court again on 3 February.
She then started posting on Facebook after her release from prison about her belief in God and she trusts that he will help her in this matter. Her friends even rallied behind her. Surely her family knows about her history and condones it.
Here is hoping that when she next appears in court the judge will hand down a stricter sentence.
