Cape Town - A man who stole nearly half a million rand from his elderly mother-in-law, has to pay it back within five years – or face six years in prison.
Wilhelm Dreyer, 57, of Stellenbosch, appeared in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Bellville on Tuesday, before magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg.
The proceedings took the form of a plea bargain, negotiated by defence attorney Willem Naude with senior State advocate Ezmeralda Johnson.
He was sentenced to six years jail, suspended for five years, on condition that he repaid the stolen R464 500 in full by February 2022.
The magistrate said she hoped the family relationship would be mended, but it depended on whether he stuck to his monthly installments, as ordered by the court.
If he failed with any of the 60 installments, it would be a breach of the conditions of the suspended prison sentence.
If this happened, he would be re-arrested and brought before the court again, for the suspended jail sentence to be put into operation, she warned.
According to court papers, his mother-in-law, aged 90, gave him a Power of Attorney (PoW) to manage her financial affairs, but revoked it for reasons not stated in the papers, and gave it to another daughter instead.
The other daughter discovered that her mother’s FNB bank account was severely depleted, and Dreyer falsely informed her that the missing money was in an Absa bank financial portfolio.
But when this daughter made inquiries, Absa denied having any financial portfolio in her mother’s name.
The fact that Dreyer had abused the trust that his mother-in-law had placed in him, and had used the money for his own benefit, was listed by the prosecutor as an aggravating factor.
The theft caused his mother-in-law severe financial strain, as the money – the proceeds from the sale of her apartment – was meant to supplement her pension.
African News Agency