Johannesburg:
A 53-year-old Indian-origin South African rejected lawyer, who scammed 17 couples across the country by charging money for the same venue in one day, has been arrested after she was tracked down by a private security company.
But she likely avoided jail for fraud because of a promise by her lawyer and family to pay off all scam victims.
Although the name of the scammer arrested on Tuesday was not initially released as she had not yet appeared in court, security company Reaction Unit South Africa (RUSA) said on its Facebook page that the woman is Preline Mohanlal, whose lawyer Chris Gounden had contacted him. Offer to arrange to pay back all victims who have been defrauded and have proof of payment.
Mohanlal reportedly convinced love-struck couples planning their wedding to pay huge sums of money in advance for a venue that had no connection with the venue.
When the couple reached the venue, they found that there was no water or electricity, ruining their special wedding day.
One of the couple, who preferred to remain anonymous, contracted Roosa in December last year to trace Mohanlal. Later, the company found a total of 17 couples through social media who were defrauded in this manner.
“The complainants were from several provinces in South Africa. A detective from SAPS Boksburg North (in Gauteng province) contacted RUSA and informed them that the same suspect was wanted in two cases of fraud opened in Gauteng in 2024. The woman had defrauded a car dealership of Rs 200,000 and a couple of Rs 26,000. ,” said Prem Balram, head of RUSA. RUSA said that after locating the woman, Mohanlal informed authorities that she was a criminal lawyer who had been disbarred by the Law Society after stealing money from a client’s trust fund account.
“It was later established that the suspect was convicted of fraud and had a criminal record and a history of scams spanning over 20 years,” Balram said.
The Weekly Post reported that the woman denied she was running a scam and said her business had “reached a bad state” and she was struggling to pay people who had canceled their weddings. Gave.
She claimed she was owed a total of about R60,000 by nine couples and planned to pay every cent.
“This is not a scam and I am not a scammer. My company has gone through a lot. At the end of last year, I had nine cancellations and I sent letters to each couple informing them that they would receive a full refund. But I could not repay them on time because my partners had pulled out in October,” she told the weekly.
A fraud victim shared how he and his fiancée had to endure the embarrassment of having to cancel their wedding and spend months saving up to plan it again later this year.
“Based on what ‘she stole from us’, it significantly impacted our planning and what we were expecting to be our dream day has now turned into an event where we have to do the best we can, ” said the man, who did not want to be identified.
(TagstoTranslate)South African(T)Wedding Scammers of Indian Origin
