Dodgy diamond dealer jailed
Giel Mans sentenced to 12 years in prison for fraud and theft of R7.5m
GIEL Mans, the dodgy Port Elizabeth “diamond dealer” who, in 2011, staged his own kidnapping only to be arrested within days while braaiing with friends on Christmas Eve of that year, was yesterday sentenced to an effective 12 years in prison.
The Port Elizabeth District Court had found Mans guilty on a raft of charges, most of which involved fraud and theft, some of forgery relating to bank statements, and one of defeating the ends of justice for pretending he had been kidnapped. The total value of the theft he was found guilty of, including the theft of both money and diamonds, was R7.51-million, all of which occurred between June and November of 2011.
Nelson Mandela Bay senior public prosecutor Lionel Kroon said yesterday that Mans had pleaded guilty to 13 charges and that a number of other complaints laid against him were withdrawn.
“He also pleaded guilty to count 23 which involved defeating the ends of justice. He pretended he had been kidnapped,” Kroon said.
He also revealed that the sentencing came after Mans had again been arrested for failing to appear in court to face the charges last year.
“He was arrested in Nelspruit last week on a warrant after he failed to appear in court on December 3 last year.
“For the theft, he was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment, of which three years was suspended for five years.
“For the obstruction of justice he was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. However, the court ordered that the two sentences be served concurrently. His effective sentence is therefore 12 years’ imprisonment.”
According to the judgment documentation, Mans had posed as a commodities trader who specialised in diamond trading and operated a business entity called Noble Diamonds. It conducted some of its business from an office in Westbourne Road, Port Elizabeth.
Mans purported to investors that he was in a position to pur- chase diamonds at a relatively low cost in South Africa and elsewhere in Africa and then resell them for profits of between 50% and 70% and in cases even 150%, in London.
The judgment lists seven “victims” who had invested amounts ranging from R25 000 to R3-million with Mans.
The Charlo, Port Elizabeth, man was arrested by police while partying with friends at Hartbeespoort Dam on Christmas Eve in 2011.
The arrest came two weeks after his wife called police claiming Mans had been kidnapped and that the alleged kidnappers were demanding a R5-million ransom.
Police, at the time, had put Mans’s arrest down to smart thinking by police investigators. Not content with simply tracking Mans’s cellphone, police also got in touch with his friends on Facebook, who led them straight to Mans.
Mans had staged his kidnapping after coming under pressure from his clients who were demanding to know what had become of their investments.