A Cape Town woman has been sentenced in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crimes Court after defrauding her victims out of R3 million.
Virginia Dawn Wilscot, 60, was convicted on charges of fraud, theft, forgery and uttering on March 25.
The Western Cape spokesperson for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (known as Hawk), Warrant Officer Zinzi Hani said Wilscot perpetrated her crimes from 2012 until 2017.
“It is alleged that from 2012 to 2017, Wilscot made misrepresentations to the victims that she was an agent registered to buy houses and vehicles on auction.
“Wilscot presented the victims with fictitious and altered documents of houses and vehicles that were supposed to be auctioned.
“They made payments to the bank account of Wilscot for the services that were never delivered. The victims suffered a loss in the amount of R3 million,” Hani said.
The matter was reported to the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crimes Investigation team based in Bellville for probing.
Wilscot was found guilty on 20 counts of fraud, a count of theft and eight counts of forgery and uttering.
She had been a trial awaiting prisoner since September 2017.
During sentencing, the magistrate took into consideration the six years and eight months that Wilscot has been detained.
Wilscot was sentenced 11 years direct imprisonment on charges of fraud, six years imprisonment for theft, and five years imprisonment on charges of forgery and uttering.