Professional Update
A
monthly newsletter for KZN Attorneys from the Kwazulu-Natal Law Society

1 June 2009

This professional service draws attention to current and important items of news
 and members are directed to the hosts' websites

InfoUpdate 11 of 2009
Recent Judgments

Electronic copies of this information may be obtained from our librarians at help@lawlibrary.co.za or click on the underlined hyperlink where relevant

Commercial Crimes Courts

Bellville

Property fraudster sentenced to cleaning buildings - 4 May
A Bellville mother who created a fictitious business and devised a complicated embezzlement scheme will have to clean buildings for three years as part of her sentence, a Cape Town court ordered her today. In addition to having to clean and maintain buildings, Renay Benjamin, 39, was given a three-year jail sentence, which was conditionally suspended for five years. She appeared in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court, where magistrate Amrith Chabilall described her as "devious", when he sentenced her on 46 counts of fraud. -
Moneyweb website
Keyphrase :
Schonberg Trust Management (SMT)

Alleged fraudster to have his day in court - 7 May
The fraud case against the chairperson of the International Institute for Municipal and Public Safety has been set down for May 25, the Belville Commercial Crime Court heard on Thursday. Jacobus Andre Davids faces 14 counts of fraud along with his co-accused Robert William Malherbe, a contractor. It is alleged that Malherbe and Davids, the municipal law enforcement manager for the Stellenbosch municipality, regularly defrauded the municipality. Davids allegedly used his power to approve tenders of up to R30 000 at a time. In total R254 180 had been taken. -
IOL website

KZN contractor fined for Cape scam - 8 May
A building contractor from Pietermaritzburg, who started a fake wholesale business in Cape Town, was fined R200 000 on Friday. He fraudulently bought consumer goods worth R2,4-million on credit, for re-sale to retailers, with no intention to pay for the goods himself. Westley Sigamoney was ordered in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court to repay his 29 creditors R10 000 per month until May 2012. Sigamoney was also sentenced to three years jail, suspended for five years, on condition that he made the monthly payments. He was found guilty on 29 counts of fraud. -
IOL website

Johannesburg

Joburg's forfeiture unit seizes assets worth over R23mil - 7 May
The Johannesburg Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) on Wednesday seized assets worth more than R23 million belonging to the former Salaries Accountant of Omnia Holdings (Pty) Ltd. Danalutchmee Latchman, her husband and daughter were arrested and have been charged with fraud, theft and money laundering in the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crimes Court. They are due to appear in court again on 23 June 2009. -
BuaNews Online website

Family's R23m assets seized - 8 May
For more than eight years, Danalutcmee Latchman and her family lived the high life. As a couple, Latchman and her husband owned five properties in Lenasia and ran three large liquor chain stores and a disco bar. They also boasted an impressive fleet of luxury vehicles - 13 in total. Life was good for the Latchmans until it was discovered that the 53-year-old woman, a former salaries accountant for Omnia Holdings, a JSE-listed company, had allegedly embezzled money from the firm over eight years. The Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crimes Court granted collective bail of R650 000. They are to appear again on June 23. But Latchman's woes worsened on Wednesday after the Joburg Asset Forfeiture Unit and SAPS Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit "executed a restraint order" to freeze and restrain assets to the value of more than R23-million. -
IOL website

InfoUpdate : an Information Service supplied by the KwaZulu-Natal Law Society