House scam suspects face court again
· Citizen
It never rains but pours for a self-proclaimed Gauteng lawyer/estate agent, her husband and three accomplices, as more charges will be added to those they are already facing in court.
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Lerato Ramanyimi, husband Nicolus Ramanyimi and the three others appeared in the Benoni Magistrate’s Court yesterday where they were denied bail.
The case has been adjourned to allow the state to add more charges.
Five suspects house scam denied bail
The five, who were arrested last week, are expected to appear in court again next week on Friday.
About 20 people claiming to have been defrauded attended court and identified the suspects.
Sources close to the matter said more arrests are expected to be made soon.
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It is alleged that Lerato Ramanyimi convinced potential buyers to pay a deposit on a property, but would later tell clients the houses were no longer for sale and would disappear without returning the money.
Mpho Khanye from Tsakani township in Springs told The Citizen yesterday: “I am so happy that we were allowed to attend the case.
“We will continue to testify against them until we get our money back and see these criminals sentenced.
‘We will testify until we get our money back’
“I was retrenched and then, in March last year, I started looking for a house to buy. A woman who claimed to be an estate agent introduced me to Lerato.
“They took me to the house and I told them I would like to buy it. Then they took me to the offices of PH Executors in Benoni, where we finalised the offer to purchase and related processes.
“When they told me the house was no longer available, I asked them to return my money.
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“They keep on promising to refund the total amount of R112 000 I paid.
“I paid a service fee of R12 000 to PH Executors’ trust account and R100 000 to a bank account they said belonged to the owner of the house.”
Khanye said after she posted her story on social media, PH Executors owner Phineus Tsotetsi called her asking her to remove the damaging posts and also withdraw the fraud case that she opened at Tsakani police station.
Fraud case withdrawn
Khanye said Tsotetsi paid back the R12 000 and promised to settle the other amount if she stopped talking badly about his company.
“In December, I received R5 000 from an unknown account. When I phoned Tsotetsi, he confirmed he deposited the money and promised to settle the balance in January.
“When I contacted him again, he said he would no longer pay because I continued to talk to journalists about the issue.”
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Tsotetsi denied his company was involved in a housing scheme fraud. Another victim, Mamorena Maroala, who alleged Ramanyimi defrauded her of R170 000, also attended the court.
“She sold me a house that belongs to somebody and when we went there, we found the man who was occupying the house was surprised because he was not aware his house had been sold.”
Property Practitioners Regulatory Authority spokesperson Lindani Tshabalala advised consumers to conduct proper due diligence before entering into any property-related transactions and before handing over any money.