No jail for fraudster councillor

Charlotte Tabisher, a former City of Cape Town ward councillor was convicted of fraud and corruption. FILE PICTURE: ANGELO KALMEYER

Charlotte Tabisher, a former City of Cape Town ward councillor was convicted of fraud and corruption. FILE PICTURE: ANGELO KALMEYER

Published Nov 30, 2015

Share

Cape Town – A former City of Cape Town councillor was sentenced to three years house arrest on Monday on fourteen counts of fraud and two of corruption.

Charlotte Tabisher, 69, appeared in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Bellville before magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg.

The case took the form of a plea bargain, negotiated by attorney Carika Esterhuizen with senior State advocate Ezmerelda Johnson, the prosecutor.

In addition to the house arrest, Tabisher, a councillor for the Athlone ward, has to perform community service in the form of cleaning and maintenance at the Turfhall Chesire Old Age Home.

On the corruption charge, she induced Cape Minstrel member Abdullah Fakier to pay her R600 as his entry fee to the Minstrel Festival, when in fact no entry fee was required.

Fakier in fact paid the fee, but Tabisher kept the money for herself.

This constituted a gratification in terms of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act.

According to the plea bargain document, Tabisher was a ward councillor at local government level, from 2006 to 2009.

On the first 11 fraud counts, she required 11 victims to pay her deposits ranging from R300 to R2 500 for low-cost housing.

She was not authorised to receive the payments and kept the money for herself.

She also established the Fruitful Day Care Centre in Athlone to care for the children of indigent community members, whilst the parents looked for work.

However, she had a financial interest in the centre, but failed to declare it as she was required to do.

According to the charge sheet, the centre closed in 1999. However, after the centre had closed, she fraudulently applied to the City of Cape Town for a R17 000 grant in aid of the centre.

The aid was granted but not paid, and this formed the basis of another fraud charge.

On another fraud charge, she applied for another R17,000 grant for a nursery school after it had closed.

Similarly, the aid was granted but not paid.

On yet another fraud charge, she obtained a R30,000 loan from a Section 21 company (not for gain), under false pretences.

She obtained the loan, but used the money for her own benefit and not for the benefit of the community, as she was supposed to.

On the final fraud charge, she duped a victim into making an unspecified number of payments to herself, in order for her to assist him in securing the lease of property belonging to the City of Cape Town.

She was not authorised to assist the victim and in fact used the money for her own benefit.

The prosecutor listed as aggravation that her conduct was in gross breach of trust, as her duty was to serve the community.

Another factor was that the victims were all indigent members of the Athlone community.

Tabisher was also sentenced to six years in jail, conditionally suspended for five years.

African News Agency

* Use IOL’s Facebook and Twitter pages to comment on our stories. See links below.

Related Topics: