ANOTHER fraudster has been taken off the streets of Paarl.
Shawn de Canha recently arrived in Paarl and headed straight for No 1 properties to seek accommodation.
With the help of an estate agent a suitable home was found for him to rent in central Paarl. De Canha deposited the fees via internet banking and even produced a computer generated deposit slip to prove this.
He also informed them that he was in the market for a new home and was pointed in the direction of Kobus Gouws.
De Canha visited the home in Paarl north and booked into Gouws’s Koningsrus guesthouse.
Owner, Kobus Gouws, said that he always accepts payment up front for accommodation, but de Canha said that he had been unable to draw cash because of the power outage.
“De Canha agreed to pay the next day. He he went out early and on his return he packed his bags and left, ignoring my request for payment.”
But what goes around comes around.
When No 1 properties received a statement from their bank, it showed that the payment that de Canha had made had been falsified.
Despite this, de Canha returned to No1 properties to make an offer on Gouws’s house, but little did he know that the estate agent had alerted the police.
A meeting was called during which the sale of the property was discussed, but little did de Canha know that an undercover police officer was present.
Gouws had also grown increasingly suspicious of de Canha and had an Interpol check done on him.
“I was astounded when the result of this returned showing me that he was a hardened criminal who had previously been found guilty of various cases of fraud.”
Gouws returned to the meeting and when he confronted de Canha as to his previous convictions, the man turned red.
“He tried to escape from the office, but I stood in front of the door. The police officer then identified himself and made the arrest.
“But de Canha had already signed an offer on my house, and now the law prohibits me from selling it to someone else during the next 21 days.”
