Where did Nash go?
The owner of Bentech Air International, Prince Nash Benhills, is anything but the chivalrous prince his name might imply, if his previous customers are to be believed.
Nasaret resident, Joan Christians, contacted the Middelburg Observer to warn readers against him after he disappeared with her money and parts of her washing machine.
Mrs Christians says that she got a pamphlet from someone in Middelburg.
“It looked very professional and I decided to phone the number when my washing machine broke.”
A man, who introduced himself as Nash, came to her house and had a look at her machine. He said that he was going to remove some parts and take it to his workshop for repairs.
Mrs Christians paid him R800 for the work he was going to do.
“In retrospect I realize that it was stupid to pay him the full amount, but everything looked so professional.”
She never heard from him again.
“He disappeared and the numbers I have for him all just keep ringing.”
Mr Benhills did not answer any of the calls made by the Middelburg Observer on one of the three numbers he advertised. The land line does not exist.
The address on the pamphlet, 61 Du Plooy Street in Bethal, belongs to PWS Motors. The owner of the building, Mr Hassen, said that Mr Benhills did rent a space from him at the said address. But he only paid one month’s rent.
A court order gave the bailiff power to seize his property for the more than R50 000 he is said to owe Mr Hassen.
“No one wanted to buy the scrap the bailiff seized from his shop. They phoned me to ask what they must do with it and I told them to throw it away,” Mr Hassen said.
Rumour has it that he also disappeared with many Bethal customers’ money.
“He did not even pay for the pamphlets!”
The search for Bentech Air delivered two companies. Ben Tech Air System Inc. is situated in Markham, Toronto, Canada and Bentech Electrical is situated in Perth, Australia.
Mr Benhills is said to live in Hendrina and supposedly has another business premises in Piet Retief. His Facebook profile has not been used since April 2014 with one of his last status updates saying “I’m cool as ever before, that’s what all the Prince(s) do.” He describes himself as the “sinior technical engineer” of Bentech Air International on his LinkedIn profile where he also has not been active for some time.
Anyone with information about Mr Benhills can send a mail to jana@mobserver.co.za.
