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By Mervyn Naidoo 
1 hour ago
Durban – A real estate agent, who took advantage of an elderly woman’s vulnerability and needed to find a suitable home, pleaded guilty to 58 counts of fraud related to defrauding the unsuspecting client out of more than R2.1 million, but failed to deliver any House. instead.
Martha O’reilly, who worked for Tyson Properties, convinced Pathmavathi Moodley, 74, that she would find an affordable home for her, but instead she got rich. O’Reilly was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Friday.
Judge Fariedha Mohamed, who presided over the matter at Durban Regional Court, suspended three years of the sentence for a period of five years, provided that O’reilly did not commit the same offense during the suspension period.
Moodley called Tyson Properties when he saw an ad in a home magazine and contacted O’Reilly. While the starting house O’reilly pointed Moodley to on a gated Mount Edgecombe estate appealed to him, the starting price for R3m was out of reach.
O’reilly then promised to find something affordable at Moodley of Reservoir Hills.
By doing so, he got Moodley to deposit money into an attorney’s trust account so that the funds were available to make the correct purchase.
Deposits were made 58 times to the so-called lawyer’s account, but police investigations revealed that it belonged to O’Reilly.
The first deposit was in July 2016 and when the last deposit was made, almost nine months later,
O’reilly had diverted $ 129,214 from Moodley’s bank account.
O’reilly is already serving a 5-year sentence in Johannesburg after being convicted of four counts of fraud, dating back to 2013, where she used the same modus operandi to defraud more than R300,000 from clients. She was sentenced in September on those charges.
Judge Mohamed did not agree to the request of lawyer SW van der Merwe (who represented O’Reilly) that both sentences be carried out simultaneously during the trial on Friday.
In his plea, which was read by Van der Merwe, O’reilly offered to secure another affordable property for Moodley after the first attempt failed.
She advised Moodley that the money had to be deposited into an attorney’s trust account so that there would be enough money to make a purchase.
But I gave the details of my own personal account. Initially it was to make sure there was enough to secure a property, but I used the money as my own personal funds. “
O’reilly agreed that 58 deposits were made to his account.
“I admit that my actions led her to believe that I was depositing to secure a house and I admit that my actions caused her prejudice. At the time I made the misrepresentation, I knew that what I was doing was illegal.
“I did it to gain access to her funds and defraud her while I knew I was not going to help her secure the house.”
Van der Merwe asked the court to consider O’reilly’s personal circumstances when passing judgment and said his client will turn 70 in December.
He suggested that a sentence of correctional supervision would be more appropriate and that direct incarceration would have an additional devastating impact on his family.
“He deserves punishment, but that doesn’t mean he has to go to jail. What will be achieved? “asked van der Merwe.
“Ms. Moodley has suffered from prejudice, but sending the defendant to jail will not alleviate the prejudice,” Van der Merwe said.
State Attorney Kuveshni Pillay got Moodley to read a statement about the victim’s impact in court.
“I am very sore and dejected that I was scammed. Sometimes I look back and feel so stupid for allowing myself to be easily fooled. “
Moodley said her late husband was a school principal and had provided it well, but sadly, everything was stolen from him.
“My husband’s hard-earned money just disappeared.”
Moodley said she was left homeless and forced to rent, lived on her pension and her health deteriorated.
Moodley recounted how O’Reilly bragged that he only shopped at places like Woolworths, spent money on expensive gifts, liquor, and clothing for his family, but did so with his money.
“It seems I have lost all dignity. “Martha O’reilly not only stole my money, she also stole my life.”
Pillay said O’reilly “took advantage” of Moodley and did not give a clear reason about what happened to the money.
He said O’reilly had shown no remorse and only pleaded guilty because the evidence was overwhelming. Therefore, imprisonment was the only appropriate sentence.
■ Our previous report concerned the Kindlewood Estate. O’Reilly had no connection to the property. The mistake is regretted.
Sunday grandstand
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