Handy with fraud
2005-06-30
WITH irate homeowners on his heels, a fraudster took his daughter from a Paarl school this week, and high-tailed it to Cape Town.
A charge of fraud is being investigated by Paarl Police against Freddie Hawley, a fair-skinned middle-aged man who lived in Franschhoek before he disappeared.
Hawley claimed to be a handyman when he approached homeowners asking whether there was any painting to be done.
“He regularly arrived on our doorstep,” a guesthouse owner complained this week.
“He would ask to paint, and I would find odd jobs for him to do. I now know that it was his way of obtaining my trust.
“He would complete the tasks and be on his way.”
Then the guesthouse owner asked Hawley to rebuild a kitchenette.
“He asked for R4 500 in advance for the material. I handed him a cheque, which he cashed. And then he disappeared.”
The victim laid a charge with the police and started making his own enquiries.
“That’s when I realised Hawley had defrauded at least two other guesthouse owners in a similar fashion during the past months.”
During the complainant’s investigation it turned out that Hawley’s daughter was a pupil at a primary school in Paarl.
Shortly after making enquiries at the institution, the child was taken out of the school by a woman claiming to be Hawley’s sister.
It has been established that he has a son in Franschhoek and a daughter in Blouberg Strand. He drives a small silver car.
The address in Courtrai, that he offered to guesthouse owners, turned out to be an empty lot.
The police managed to speak to Hawley on his cellular phone, the only method of contact he ever disclosed.
“He promised to come and see me,” Insp Auckland Losper (807-4000) of the Paarl police said this week.
“But he has not turned up yet.”
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