Wolf in sheep’s clothing scams people out of millions
A criminal on the loose for nearly six years has finally been caught
JARNIENE Langley of South Crest Alberton has shared information about Sonia Texeira Pontes, a criminal who scammed people into believing they could purchase cars from company liquidations and deceased estates (provided by Jarniene whatsapp message history of January 22).
The ongoing saga has been a venture beyond comparison with deals alleged to have swindled hundreds of people of an estimated R4-million on legalbrief.co.za city press.
According to Jarniene it seemed that Sonia targeted vulnerable men and she would use them to get clients to buy vehicles without the men knowing exactly what she was up to.
Sonia had claimed to work for Imperial group and explained in a watsapp message to Jarniene of how the procedure worked when purchasing a vehicle.
According to Phillip Venter, another victim of this scheme, he was scammed for close to a million rand from October 2013 until March 2, 2014, during which time Phillip had found out Sonia was on the run for close to six years and involved in a case still pending from 2008 and another in Booysens. Phillip managed to catch Sonia in the act together with the police on March 4.
Jernaine explained that Sonia was not aware that the people targeted all knew each other very well. The messages would go from person to person and eventually they put two and two together.
On March 7 Capt. Paul Ramaloko, spokesperson for the Hawks, confirmed that Sonia appeared in the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crime court March 6 on fraud charges. She was arrested by the Hawks. She is still in custody until March 18 for her legal representation.
