Disabled robbed of a better life

‘Wheelchair fraudster cheating vulnerable customers out of thousands’

QUADRIPLEGIC Gregg Millen dreamt of a more comfortable life by his 50th birthday, when he expected to receive a new wheelchair for R220 000.

But after he paid the full amount last year, the agent for the Swedish-manufactured wheelchair, Donovan Walters, revealed he didn’t have the funds to buy the wheelchair, leaving Millen shattered.

“My heart sank. It was a massive blow. My excitement came crashing down.

“My birthday is on May 14 and I had hoped the wheelchair would be here by the end of April. “It can tilt backwards and forwards and stop my leg spasms. It can recline to relieve the pressure on my bum. I can put my feet up and it helps with my blood pressure,” he said.

Millen, a former financial adviser, paid attorneys about R38 000 and obtained a writ against Walters, the owner of Boksburg-based MobilityOne, which still sells equipment for the disabled.

The writ allows the sheriff to attach and sell Walters’s property and belongings and return the money to Millen. But Walters has apparently moved to Ballito in Kwa-Zulu Natal.

Although the sheriff visited Ballito four times to search for Walters, he failed to find him.

“He feels absolutely nothing. He’s keeping his shop open. I just can’t bear it. He’s targeting people with the least resistance. People will try to get their money for a while, but he bargains on the fact they won’t be able to carry on,” said Glenn.

Tracey, Millen’s sister who cares for him, said: “What blows my mind is that never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that someone would steal from the disabled.”

Millen is not the only disabled person to be disappointed by Walters.

Antonio di Nardo, from Sunninghill in Gauteng, paid Walters’ MobilityOne R130 000 last year for a Nino Robotic Scooter, a device that he hoped would be life-changing, but according to Di Nardo, Walters never delivered the scooter and did not return the money either.

“He missed numerous delivery dates. I received an e-mail from MobilityOne at the end of June saying they no longer wanted to honour his agreement to supply the scooter. I want a reimbursement of R130 000 within 14 days,” Di Nardo wrote to the National Consumer Council, which told the family it was working on the case.

Walters promised to begin repaying Di Nardo, but hasn’t. He also told Di Nardo and his partner, Janine, that he used Di Nardo’s money to pay Sars.

Di Nardo had borrowed money from relatives and R50 000 from the engineering firm he worked for until the end of last year, to buy the mobility scooter. “I am so stressed out because I have to pay them back.”

He was diagnosed with partial paralysis in 1998 and his nerves and muscles became weaker and his illness has deteriorated. “I can’t believe what he’s done to me. It’s too much… too much to do it to people with disabilities. He has no heart. He’s not human.”

Johanna Kah from Windhoek was walking past a protest in Walvis Bay in 1977 when she saw the protesters beating a 13-year-old boy. She lay on top of the child to protect him, but was beaten as well. Her legs were so injured that she slowly became more disabled until her doctor prescribed a mobility scooter.

When Kah bought one from Walters for R22 000 in April, he disappeared.

She laid a fraud charge in May. The police handed it over to Interpol, according to Kah, and she said she was told it would take a long time for the case to be investigated.

“He has robbed me of a better life. You offer your money and you think you’ve given it to a trustworthy person in the hope it will bring relief from your pain.”

MobilityOne claims on its website that it is “passionate about giving back quality of life to the disabled” and that “every effort in your day directly affects the lives of others”. The company advertises that it sells powered wheelchairs, mobility scooters, bath lifts and hand bars.

Via cellphone, Walters told Weekend Argus he’d helped “hundreds of hundreds of people for 12 years” but had “dropped a ball or two”.

When he was reminded he owed people hundreds of thousands of rands, he lashed out at Tracey Millen, accusing her of harassing his wife and children.

“She has sunk me good and well”.

“They want to cut my hands and feet off,” he said about the complaints.

When questioned about owing Millen’s brother R160 000, he answered: “I’m not going to sit here and try to explain myself.”

He ended the phone call after he was asked where the money was. henriette.geldenhuys@inl.co.za

Paraplegic Glenn Millen is fighting to get his money back from a wheelchair agent who failed to deliver the product he dreamt of having at 50.

Glenn Millen was hoping the new wheelchair would make his life more comfortable.