A bogus attorney who duped several people, including Jay Singh, has been sentenced to five years in jail.
|||Durban - A bogus Durban attorney who duped several people, including Jay Singh - the businessman linked to the Tongaat Mall collapse – has been sentenced to five years in jail.
Jay Singh was conned into buying two Durban properties, one for R980 000, the other R500 000, from impostor Ashni Singh, the Durban Commercial Crime Court heard on Thursday.
Pretending to be a lawyer, the 37-year-old woman had told the businessman she was selling repossessed homes on behalf of the eThekwini Municipality and all he had to do was pay the outstanding taxes and rates to acquire ownership of the two homes, in Innes Road, Morningside and Playfair Road, North Beach.
But when Jay Singh later put pressure on Ashni Singh to refund the money, she had committed further fraud to pay him, her lawyer, Mervin Maistry, told the court.
His client, who was charged with about R21 million in fraud and money laundering, had pleaded guilty in August and Maistry was arguing in mitigation of sentence on Thursday.
He said Jay Singh was one of several complainants.
The businessman’s son owns Rectangle Property Investments, the developer of the partly built Tongaat Mall, which caved in on Tuesday killing one person and injuring about 25.
Ashni Singh had admitted to posing as an attorney and conveyancer, convincing numerous business people to deposit money into the bank account of husband, Shayell Singh’s firm, KZN Legal Unit.
Shayell Singh and his business partner, Yogenderan Govender, were arrested, but charges were later withdrawn against them.
After it had been deposited, the money - purportedly for the outstanding rates and taxes on the properties - was transferred into Ashni Singh’s bank account. She said when people eventually realised they were not in fact the real owners of the properties they demanded refunds which, she said, led her to commit further fraud to pay them back.
Maistry said his client had once tried to study law through Unisa but that the degree (B.Proc) was being phased out at the time.
Detailing Ashni Singh’s personal circumstances to explain her behaviour, he said the two most important men in her life - her first husband and her father - had died within a short space of each other, which led to a nervous breakdown and her seeking psychological counselling and treatment.
He said Ashni Singh had met her first husband in 2001 but that on the day of their wedding two years later an “old woman” had stopped her from walking down the aisle, professing her love for her husband-to-be.
The nuptials went ahead, as her husband had explained to her that he had been in a relationship with the older woman, who had kept harassing him, Maistry said.
He said her husband was going to confront the woman, but did not return home that night.
Ashni Singh’s two brothers, both police officers, found her husband the following day with a bullet wound to his head. He had committed suicide.
On the day of her husband’s funeral, she later learnt that her father had died of a heart attack, he said. “This had set in motion her psychology trail. She has seen a variety of doctors since then.”
He said she had not married her second husband, Shayell Singh, out of love.
Six weeks into their marriage, Ashni realised her husband was in a great deal of debt when loan sharks visited their home, he said.
She tried to leave him, but her family, not knowing she had allegedly been assaulted, encouraged her to work things out with her husband.
Referring to the fraud, Maistry said it was Ashni Singh’s job to solicit potential buyers, and although Shayell was the sole member of the KZN Legal Unit, she was the face of the business and had to answer to angry people.
Maistry said his client had repaid most of the complainants and would repay the others.
State advocate, Ranjeni Govender, said outstanding amounts ranged from R24 000 to R1m. She said Ashni Singh was the driving force behind the business and had carefully planned the deals.
In passing sentence, magistrate Nalini Govender described Ashni Singh as an intelligent, sophisticated and educated woman – the traits needed to defraud the complainants. Ashni Singh declined to comment after she was sentenced, saying she needed to gather her thoughts.
noelene.barbeau@inl.co.za
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