A WOMAN, wanted for multiple cases of fraud, amounting to more than R500 000, was arrested on 28 June by Berea detective ML Dorasamy after he was alerted to her whereabouts by Mayville businessman, Janus Horn.
Horn, who owns Sica Guest House, said he had become suspicious of the woman who goes by the alias Athiliah Williamson, when she left his guest house after a month’s stay without paying her bill.
He set out to find her and his investigations uncovered a sordid tale of fraud and grifting.
The woman’s real name is known to Berea Mail but she cannot be identified until she has pleaded to the charges in court.
“The woman first made contact with a local designer after purchasing clothing from her online. She contacted the designer and fed her a sorry story of how she had to come to Durban to see a doctor for her son who was suffering with seizures after someone had closed a car boot on his head. She claimed no doctor was available in Malawi where she was from. She also told the designer that her husband, Darren Williamson, worked for himself. She said she was looking for somewhere to stay in Durban and asked if the designer could help by suggesting a place she could stay,” he said.
“When they contacted me after getting my details from a friend, and told me the woman’s story, I made a plan to assist her. She arrived at one of our guest houses on 19 May and on 20 May my mother contacted me to say the woman’s bag containing her ID, passport and money had been stolen at the airport. The woman said the airport police had refused to open a case. My mother took the woman and her son shopping to get food,” he said.
In the meantime, Horn received emails from Darren Williamson saying he would be arriving in South Africa in June, and Horn sent him an invoice for the woman’s stay and shortly afterward he received payment advice from Investec Bank in Mauritius.
However, upon checking with his bank Horn discovered that the money had not cleared.
“On 17 June the woman left the guest house without paying. I contacted her to say her payment hadn’t cleared and she said she would return and pay cash, but she never arrived. I had no choice but to open a case of bilking against her,” he said.
It was then that Horn began investigating the woman, and was shocked at what he discovered.
He found a page on social media created four months previously by the woman’s son’s father, which claimed that she had disappeared with the child and the man was looking for assistance in finding him.
Horn immediately sent a message to the page and was contacted by a private investigator who had been on the case.
He said the woman had also been linked to similar cases in Durbanville and Brackenfell, and Horn was added to a WhatsApp group which included other people the woman had conned.
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“I contacted the Durban designer to ask if any of her payments had cleared, and after checking, she realised none of them had. The designer had also loaned the woman R26 000 to buy clothing for her children,” he said.
Horn’s next discovery was an article posted online which reported that the woman had appeared on a local radio station in Durban where she spoke about her son, whom she said suffered from leukaemia, and was undergoing chemotherapy. She also claimed her fiance had died.
Her story touched the hearts of listeners and a local spa who offered her a free pamper session.
“I found out that she had subsequently started a funding page on social media to raise money for her son’s treatment, and had received hundreds of thousands of Rands,” he said, adding that he also discovered there had been two cases of fraud against her, one of which was withdrawn and she had spent a year in Pollsmoor prison for the other case.
She had been pregnant at the time and had given birth to her child while in prison.
Lucky for Horn, he managed to track the woman to Salt Rock and contacted Nicky Burke from Berea CPF on 27 June to fill her in and request assistance in bringing the woman to book.
Burke contacted the Berea SAPS station commander, who assigned Det ML Dorasamy to the case. Dorasamy headed to Salt Rock and arrested the woman at a motel at 5.30pm on 28 June, and took her to Berea SAPS.
“The woman’s son was signed over to a family member and I got in contact with his father, who arrived on Sunday. He returned to Cape Town with the boy on Monday. Det Dorasamy worked all day on the Saturday compiling documents on the case. I want to thank Nicky and Det Dorasamy, who both went above and beyond what was expected of them to help. They worked so efficiently together in handling the matter, and I am sure there are further cases which are yet to be reported,” he said.
Detective Dorasamy speaks about the case
Speaking to Berea Mail, Det Dorasamy said there were five counts of fraud against the woman arising out of incidents from Cape Town to Durban.
“Her modus operandi is to use her child to extort money from people under the pretense that he has cancer. She stays at hotels and B&Bs and sends false proof of payments before absconding. She went live on the radio to say her son had cancer and scammed the station as well as defrauding Cupcakes4Kids With Cancer. She was involved in investment scams, and came up with fictitious characters such as Darren Williamson, and in one case, stated her son had died and she had scattered his ashes. On record, her victims have recorded a loss of more than R500 000,” he said, adding that the son’s father had since been granted primary care of him.
The woman appeared in court on Tuesday and Dorasamy said her bail application had been denied. Her legal counsel has requested that his client be mentally evaluated.
“The psychiatrist has deemed her fit to stand trial and we urge any other victims of this woman’s scams to come forward,” he said.
Any persons who may have been conned by the woman, are urged to contact Det Dorasamy on 031 312 2345.
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