A Cape Town woman has been sentenced for her crimes in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crimes Court.
Brigette Storey, 46, was convicted on charges of fraud, forgery, and money laundering.
The provincial spokesperson for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (known as Hawks), Lieutenant Colonel Siyabulela Vukubi, said that Storey engaged in bridging finance applications for properties by providing fraudulent documents.
The matter was investigated by members of the Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team.
“All these fraudulent activities were conducted between November 2013 and January 2014 to a total loss of R8,250,000.
“During December 2017, the accused attempted to purchase a property situated in Durbanville, providing false documents about her late husband and that she had R2,875,000 cash available to conclude the sale through misrepresentation.
“The investigation further revealed that in November 2017, the accused presented to OK Mini Market that she was a willing buyer and agreed to make payment to the amount of R2 million but failed to make any payments,” Vukubi said.
Storey was convicted on a charge of money laundering, four counts of fraud, and three charges of forgery.
For the money laundering charge, Storey was sentenced to three years imprisonment, with two years suspended for five years on the condition that she is not convicted of the same offence during the suspension period.
Storey was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for fraud and forgery, with six years suspended for five years on the condition that she is not convicted of fraud, theft, forgery, or any attempt to commit any of these offences during the suspension period.
The court considered that Storey had already served six and a half years while on trial. She was also a first-time offender.