Couple sentenced for fraud and money laundering
The husband and wife, who are from Port Shepstone, will both spend time behind bars.
Last week Port Shepstone couple, Sashin and Chantal Sewpersadh were sentenced in the Durban Commercial Crime Court for defrauding several people of R10.5 million.
The fraud occurred from 2016 to 2017.
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In October 2019, Mr. Sewpersadh pleaded guilty to 29 counts of fraud, four counts of theft and 29 counts of contravening the Attorneys Act.
In committing some of the offences, he purported to be an attorney/conveyancer and convinced the complainants that he had permission to sell certain properties in Phoenix and Umhlanga.
He told them that their payments to him would facilitate the transfer of ownership of these properties to them. However, these properties were not for sale, nor did the accused have any consent to advertise or sell them.
His wife, Chantal pleaded guilty to five counts of money laundering.
The couple also pretended to be agents for the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and convinced one of the complainants that they could assist her with the payment of money she owed to SARS. In one instance, they pretended to be insurance brokers and had complainants deposit money into their bank account.
In aggravation of sentence, senior state advocate Ranjini Govender told the court that the guilty plea was not necessarily indicative of remorse.
She also asked the court to consider that the actions of the accused were premeditated and carefully planned. They were not lured into the commission of the crime but took the initiative themselves.
Mr Sewpersadh was sentenced to 15 years of direct imprisonment. Mrs Sewpersadh was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in terms of Section 276 (1) (i) of the Criminal Procedure Act where she will serve 10 months in prison and thereafter be placed into various programmes to address the offences committed.
The Director of Public Prosecutions in KwaZulu-Natal, Adv Elaine Zungu welcomed the sentence.
“Sentences of this nature show how seriously the courts view crimes of fraud and money laundering. Congratulations to the team involved in this successful prosecution.”
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