JOHANNESBURG: The con woman who defrauded more than R500 000 from churches, an online counselling service and residents of the West Rand has dodged a lengthy prison sentence.
But over the next five years, Leone Steyn will have to pay back the money she stole. In addition, she will be kept under house arrest for the next three years and has been ordered to continue drug rehabilitation and psychological treatment.
When she was 17, Steyn laid the groundwork for a more than three-year scam that ultimately netted her R592 000 in cash and goods that she defrauded from churches and an online counselling service.
Using the counselling service MobieG, Steyn created more than 50 profiles of fictitious children she claimed had been rescued from a satanic porn ring and had the service solicit donations from churches across the West Rand.
Sometimes pretending to kill her characters off through suicide to garner sympathy, Steyn also got the company to donate thousands upon thousands to the fake safe house where the children were supposedly being kept.
Yesterday, Steyn, now 23, was sentenced in the Roodepoort Magistrate’s Court and has apologised through her lawyer, Quentin van Huyssteen, for the damage she did.
Soft-spoken but clearly disturbed by Steyn’s behaviour, magistrate Andrea Davie gave a stern judgment, telling the young woman that she had betrayed the trust of all those from whom she stole, particularly Stephnie Crouse, the director of MobieG. “You preyed on their goodness and the generosity of the complainant (Crouse),” Davie said.
The magistrate noted how Steyn had ruined the counselling service’s reputation and finances, and that people in need of counselling had to go without it as the service suffered economically.
She said the reason she had chosen not to send Steyn to prison for the minimum 15-year sentence was that the young woman would not be able to earn an income and pay Crouse back.
Davie sentenced Steyn to a five-year suspended prison sentence, warning her that should she commit any other fraud or theft, she would quickly find herself behind bars.
She then sentenced her to three years of correctional supervision and house arrest, meaning she has to wear an electronic bracelet preventing her from going anywhere outside areas designated by the Department of Correctional Services.
Steyn was ordered to pay back Crouse R270 000 over the next five years, at R4 500 per month, from her current R5 000 salary.
The magistrate also ordered that Steyn continue her drug rehabilitation and perform 16 hours of community service each month and refrain from using any alcohol or drugs.
Outside court, Crouse said she was satisfied with the outcome, but hoped Steyn would learn a lesson after what she did.
However, she acknowledged the psychological trauma she and her counsellors had experienced through Steyn’s bizarre and disturbing stories.