‘Pay back the money’: 22 people ‘scammed’ by Mitchells Plain companies

Twenty-two people have approached the Daily Voice to allege that they have been scammed out of hundreds of thousands of rands after dealing with two property and financial services companies in Mitchells Plain.

They say they did cash deals with Hendricks Properties and Witmart and Smith Enterprise, which share offices in Watergate Mall and offer services including investments, business loans and sales of repossessed homes.

One Woodlands woman said she invested R50 000 with Witmart and Smith with the promise of a R1.2 million return, and a Lost City man allegedly paid R450 000 to Hendricks Properties for a house which he did not receive.

Shaun Achilles claims he was conned out of R380 000 by Haley Hendricks, the owner of Hendricks Properties, when he bought a repossessed house in February this year.

“I made contact with her, the next day my fiancee and I went to her office and we agreed on a house that we saw in Westridge. The location was perfect,” he said.

“She told me that I needed to pay to secure the property and we went back to her office and I made a payment of R250 000 at her office.”

He subsequently transferred a further R175 000 to her.

Achilles says Hendricks then came up with klomp stories when he asked her for the “offer to purchase” letter.

“When I finally cancelled the deal, I was told that Haley was a third party in this situation and I haven’t seen her since February,” he added.

By April, Shaun said he received R45 000 back from Hendricks after he appointed a lawyer, but up until today, he is still fighting to get the rest of his money back.

According to Hendricks, via her lawyer, she was a “referral agent” for Witmart and Smith, and claims to have herself also lost money with them.

“I acknowledge that various persons have approached myself to either obtain a business loan, bond financing, purchasing of repo houses and investments.

“As per Witmart’s instructions, because I was the referral agent, that the clients’ funds be paid to my account and thereafter to transfer the funds to bank accounts as specified by Witmart less my referral commission. I pause to mention I too made investments with Witmart [sic],” she stated.

She claimed that Witmart neglected or refused to deliver on the “deals”.

“After several requests and demands, Witmart failed to refund the monies,” she stated.

Hendricks says she is in the process of initiating legal proceedings against Witmart in the Western Cape High Court.

The alleged victims say they’ve been dealing with Fabio Pick, as well as Ernest Witbooi, Faizel Adams and Ricardo Martin, who are all directors at Witmart and Smith.

But, Pick also passed the buck, saying: “I worked for Haley and I referred four or five people, whatever went wrong there was beyond my control.”

Witmart and Smith’s attorney Wajdie Benjamin told the Daily Voice that his clients – Witbooi, Adams and Martin – “cannot comment on anything which you wished for them to respond to as these are pure false allegations against them”.

The Daily Voice confirmed six cases of fraud and theft have been opened at Lentegeur SAPS.

Police spokesperson Wesley Twigg said no arrests have been made. The investigation continues.

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