Durban -
More than five years after dozens of unsuspecting clients were allegedly duped out of thousands of rands in a property scam, a former attorney and his secretary faced up to the charges in the Durban High Court on Monday.
Binesh Bene Singh and Urika Lucken pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud and racketeering before Acting Judge Rod Callum.
The charges relate to incidents that took place between October 2006 and August 2008.
The indictment alleges that Singh was the manager of an illegal enterprise operated from his law firm, in which he, Lucken and another woman, Raisa Alli, conspired to defraud people by claiming they could facilitate buying homes for them.
About 40 people gave Alli money, amounting to about R3 million, for deposits or as the purchase prices for homes.
But the homes were never for sale and none of the buyers recovered their money.
Alli pleaded guilty to her role in the enterprise in 2009 and was jailed for six years.
In her plea, she claimed that she had agreed to find potential buyers for repossessed homes that were to be auctioned.
When she realised that she had become part of a fraudulent scheme, she began to act in “cahoots” with Singh and Lucken.
On Monday Singh’s attorney, Siven Samuel, applied for the matter to be adjourned pending a decision of the national director of public prosecutions regarding representations that had been made.
State advocate Yuri Gangai said the adjournment was another attempt to delay the trial.
Judge Callum refused the adjournment and the trial started with the evidence of Shunmugam Pillay.
Pillay said he had been referred to Ali by a friend as he had wanted to buy property.
He believed that Ali was an estate agent and she had told him about a Chatsworth property he could buy for R250 000.
Pillay said Ali told him he could only see the outside of the property because it was being repossessed and that he had to pay her a 10% deposit.
Pillay borrowed R20 000 from a relative, who wrote a cheque to Ali, and paid the other R5 000 in cash, but the deal never materialised.
Questioned by Judge Callum about how he could buy a property he had not seen, Pillay said he thought it was a “good buy”.
Pillay said he had on one occasion been introduced to “Ureka” from the attorney’s office, but yesterday he could not confirm that the person was Lucken.
Under cross-examination, Pillay said he did not know what happened to the money he had paid to Ali and that he had only dealt with her.
The trial is continuing. Singh and Lucken are out on bail.
The Mercury