Cape Town - A disbarred attorney has been sentenced to 10 years behind bars for a spate of crimes, which she committed even after she was barred from practising as a lawyer.
Rugaya van der Schyff, 57, was sentenced in the Bellville Commercial Crimes Court, where she faced 48 charges including fraud, money laundering, theft, and contravention of the Section 33(4) of the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014.
She was convicted on all the charges after she entered a plea and sentencing agreement with the State.
Van der Schyff was admitted as an attorney in December 2002; as a conveyancer in September 2003; and practised under the name R van der Schyff Attorneys.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson, Eric Ntabazalila, said Van der Schyff was struck off the roll of attorneys in January 2017.
“Although she was struck off the roll of attorneys, she continued to do legal work for payment and instructed her client to deposit monies in a bank account belonging to Lubhelu Investments 10 CC, which was later registered under her daughter’s name.
“In March 2021, she received R261 279 from Khuthazwa Mphombo for a house she was buying from Nelson Mbulelo Jacobs in Strand.
“When Mphombo and Jacobs arrived at her offices, she introduced herself as Ms Panday.
“She asked Mphombo to transfer purchase and legal fees into the investment bank account and never told them it was not a trust account,” Ntabazalila said.
After numerous enquiries and hiring lawyers to investigate her case, Mphombo was informed that the property was never registered in her name.
Ismail Samuels suffered the same fate when he deposited R291 215 from a property he wanted to purchase from his neighbour in Bonteheuwel.
He also never received his money back.
Abera Gudiso Famo was the biggest loser, as he deposited R1.8 million for a property in Bellville.
Ntabazalila said Orthea Rhode also paid R82 000 for a property in Eersterivier.
"Edward Kota paid R1.3m for a property in Montana. He found out later that the sale was cancelled but his money was never returned.
“The various complainants lost more than R7.45m to the fraud and theft committed by the accused.
“The Legal Practioner’s Fidelity Fund also fell victim as it received 41 claims of misappropriation and theft of trust funds.
“After its investigation, the fund discovered that the claims exceeded R9m, but it had already paid out claims in the amount of R4.88m to various clients of the accused.”
In the plea and sentencing agreement, Van der Schyff said she was verbally, physically, emotionally, and financially abused by her late husband.
She said she would steal the monies from her trust bank account to give to her husband to keep the peace between them.
She admitted that was not an excuse to absolve her.
Senior State Advocate, Denzyl Combrink, told the court that the accused was an attorney who defrauded and appropriated trust funds from her clients.
For all the charges against her, Van der Schyff was sentenced to 44 years imprisonment, but the court ordered the sentences to run concurrently effectively sentencing her to 10 years imprisonment.
The Director of Public Prosecutions in the Western Cape, Advocate Nicolette Bell, said theft of people’s monies by those expected to uphold the law was unacceptable.
Cape Times