Pretoria – Former attorney Collen Butiki Rihlampfu, 48, has been convicted of six counts of theft of more than R1 million by the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court, after he pleaded guilty to all charges.
“Rihlampfu, of Rihlampfu Attorneys, was struck off the roll as an attorney in Gauteng on 7 March 2018, because of his unethical practices. (Afterwards) he continued to defraud six different complainants between June and August 2018, in and around Pretoria, by pretending to be a conveyancer and a practising attorney,” according to North Gauteng regional spokesperson for the director of public prosecutions, Lumka Mahanjana.
She said the complainants would deposit money into Rihlampfu’s bank account, hoping that he would assist them with their house purchases, in terms of transfers and issues of title deeds.
“Rihlampfu would take the money and use it for his benefit,” said Mahanjana.
“In court, he pleaded guilty to all charges referred against him. In his guilty plea, he said that he took money from the buyers for his personal use and that he intended to steal and defraud them.”
Mahanjana said Rihlampfu told the court that he knew that no transfers were going to happen and no title deeds were to be issued by the deeds office.
“The magistrate accepted his guilty plea and found him guilty of all counts. The matter was postponed to 8 June 2022, for sentence proceedings.”
Head of the Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit, Advocate Marshall Mokgatle has welcomed the conviction of Rihlampfu, from Mabopane, north of Tshwane.
IOL