Travel agent wins R150 000 in damages

A TRAVEL agent from Pinetown is set to receive R150 000 in damages from the minister of police after she was arrested and detained for a night in a police cell, following false allegations of fraud against her, emanating from a seaside holiday booking she had made for a Bronkhorstspruit school.

Michelle van der Westhuizen, who runs a travel agency called Select Resorts, claimed damages against the police in the Pretoria High Court after her ordeal in 2011.

It all started when Joyce Mpai, a teacher at Ekangala school, contacted her to arrange accommodation for 210 pupils and 40 teachers on the Durban beachfront.

Van der Westhuizen secured the accommodation at R69 900, which the school agreed to.

A dispute arose between Van der Westhuizen and representatives of the school about the payment of a deposit of R20 000.

Van der Westhuizen said the school had to pay a deposit of 50% of the full amount to secure the accommodation.

But the school said the R20 000 it had paid was enough to secure the accommodation.

A few months after the booking was made, Mpai, the headmaster of the school and two police officers arrived at Van der Westhuizen’s office “out of the blue”. They demanded to be shown what the accommodation looked like.

Van der Westhuizen showed them all the documents relating to the booking, but they demanded to see the actual accommodation. She took them to the Durban beachfront hotel and they went through each room where the teachers and children were to stay.

Several months after the holiday, two police officers from Bronkhorstspruit appeared at Van der Westhuizen’s office. They were dressed in plain clothes. They told her they were SAPS members and were arresting her for fraud.

She was put in the back of a police vehicle and driven from Pinetown to Bronkhorstspruit. She was kept in a police cell overnight and taken to court the next day, but was not officially charged.

Acting Judge VR S Nkosi said Van der Westhuizen made no misrepresentations to the school. He said he had no idea how the police could have concluded fraud was being committed, and ordered that she be paid R150 000.