Tragic web of conmen

VICTIMS: TALES OF LOST MILLIONS, HOMES, CARS – AND LIVES ....

Investigator takes five years to track down Mr P, only for him to slip away.

Atangled web of lost millions, homes, cars – and eventually lives – all because people fall victim to ruthless conmen.

When Tanya Madeley met Mr P* she was an outgoing, vivacious woman, but too trusting, says her ex-husband, Chris Schuurman.

She was dating Stanley Buys at the time, but when she met Mr P’s middleman, DJ (not his real name), she apparently fell for a classic “get-rich-quickly” scheme.

“Tanya became involved through DJ. He was the first guy to initially approach her. It started getting quite big and she was totally gullible,” says Schuurman.

“He wanted her to invest money for this, and then it was for the tax, then it was for a tenant, now we need for that, now we have to pay for this, if we don’t pay we’re going to lose the money,” Schuurman remembers the excuses and many times she approached him for financial help.

“She promised me half of her promised return, which was apparently 30%. It was the most ridiculous thing I’d heard. You don’t get a return like that.”

Eventually, he gave her more than R400 000 but then he closed the cash tap.

Even boyfriend Buys borrowed R1.8m from someone to give to Mr P to keep the wolves from the door.

But Madeley quickly ran out of money and sold her car. She bought a motorcycle, which she crashed and landed up in a public hospital because she no longer had any medical aid. A week later she was dead. Shortly after Madeley’s death, Buys shot himself. And Mr P disappeared … But another alleged victim,

Brent Webb, claimed Mr P had reduced him from a millionaire to a pauper.

Webb used to live in Dubai as the director of a gold refinery and was used to the finer things of life.

“I’ve known DJ, Mr P’s middleman, for more than 30 years and when he said he had a ‘great’ investment scheme, I was in,” says Webb.

“I had known him for a long time, I trusted him …

“But, eventually, you’re giving money just to try and get your original investment back,” Webb said, too embarrassed to say exactly how much he had lost – but he conceded it was “millions”.

Webb lost his home, his cars, and ended up outside a shopping centre with his wife, son, and a few suitcases.

“A few months ago, we were in a guest house and Mr P promised me he had a payment for me. He convinced me to pack up and catch a taxi to a mall. At 2pm, he contacted me and said, sorry, he could only come tomorrow.”

When Webb told Mr P he was there with his son and wife, without a penny to his name, Mr P said he could only sort it out the next day. Mr P never showed … A friend made some calls and the Webb family landed up at a shelter in Klipspruit.

Webb’s circumstances have somewhat improved, which gave him the benefit of hindsight.

“I should have walked away in the middle of 2010, but by then I had sunk close to a million rand in Mr P’s scheme.

“He took almost everything from me. I want to see him.”

Enter IRS Forensic Investigations’ Chad Thomas: it took him five years of intensive investigation to track Mr P down after being approached by several victims.

“He never stayed in one place for too long. When he suspected I was closing in, he would take off,” said Thomas.

In December 2016, Thomas managed to grab Mr P in Vereeniging, but had to release him as there was no active warrant of arrest for him.

“Multiple cases were opened against the suspect around the country at various police stations. Warrants of arrest were issued on several cases and then cancelled with the cases marked as ‘undetected’ and archived,” Thomas said.

“This allowed him to continue unabated with his fraudulent activities. If it wasn’t for the intervention of the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit and the efforts of investigating officer Captain Masengi, together with the team from IRS, Mr P would not have been tracked down and arrested in Milnerton in the Western Cape.”

*Mr P’s name is known to The Citizen, but as he has not pleaded on any charges, he cannot be named. He recently appeared in the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court where he was accused of multiple charges of fraud believed to run into more than R20 million. He applied for legal aid and is expected to reappear soon.

Police are also looking for Shane Jonker, who they believe can assist them with their inquiries.

She promised me half of her promised return, which was apparently 30%. It was the most ridiculous thing I’d heard.

Chris Schuurman Ex-husband of one victim