Congregants want convicted pastor jailed for multi-million rand fraud

Congregants impacted by the fraudulent dealings of convicted fraudsters Colin Davids, his company Platinum Forex CC and the company’s marketing manager, Derek Bredekamp, have fallen on hard financial times since they lost their pension funds.

The Bellville Commercialised Crimes Court heard the impact statements from investigating officer Ronald van Niekerk who was called as a witness for the state to testify in aggravation of sentencing.

Davids, his company and Bredekamp were convicted after a decade-long trial in June this year after the ponzi scheme operations ground to a halt during 2015 when the assets of the company were frozen, following extensive investigation by the Hawks.

They were convicted on more than 50 charges related to financial fraud, including contravention of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, fraud, and money laundering.

The ponzi-scheming pair had directly or indirectly, solicited deposits, investments, and loans in the total amount of R329.8 million from individuals - most of them church congregants of the former New Direction Grace Church - to hold in trust and forex trading on behalf of and to the benefit of such investors and lenders. The Parow church has since been renamed.

Van Niekerk yesterday told the court that pensioners, widows and people who were retrenched from their jobs suffered severely financially due to the losses suffered through investments they had made.

Individuals affected by the fraud, who were not named as per court instruction to not cause further trauma, said they wanted the two to be imprisoned for lengthy periods to deter others from causing the same hurt to others. 

Van Niekerk said the affected victims lured them by using 'Christ's name' to defraud congregants.

“One of the witnesses I had contacted after the accused were convicted said she has since had to move to a backyard in Bishop Lavis where she lives with family. She lost everything and where she lives there is no tap. She lives off a R320 Sassa grant and on a previous occasion when I had asked her to be at court, she was unable to afford the traveling costs.

“Another witness said they had invested their own money as well as a friend's funds which came from a deceased estate. The person said they now still owe money to that friend for the money that was lost. This person asked that the accused be imprisoned for a long period. Another victim said they have lost all their money from their pension fund and now, with a sickly spouse, they are unable to pay money for a caregiver. They said they trusted the persons with their money and they asked for a 100 year imprisonment,” said Van Niekerk.

In mitigation of sentencing, the accused's counsel, advocate Winston Erasmus called two pastors to the witness stand who held years long relationships with the accused.

Theodore Mitchell testified that Davids was a mentor to him and he witnessed the co-pastor's remorse for his actions following lengthy discussions over the last three years. According to Mitchell, Davids should not be imprisoned as he “could serve greater impact in the community” if he was given a non-custodial sentence.

The second witness for the defence, Peter Barnes, echoed the call that a non-custodial sentence is imposed. According to Barnes, Bredekamp had a positive impact on his community and he was missed by congregants who he had previously given advice and support to.

During the trial, the State proved that Davids was the sole member of Platinum Forex CC and chief executive officer of the company and Bredenkamp was the marketing manager. They made payments to various forex brokers to conduct forex trading, totalling R87.5 million, the large majority of which was lost. Monthly interest paid to investors and lenders was generated from investments and loans received from new investors and lenders.

During trial, senior state advocate Jannie Knipe also proved that the three accused and agents acting on their behalf were not entitled and authorised to accept deposits, investments, and loans from the public. 

The accused made their first appearance in November 2017, and the case was postponed numerous times due to various applications. 

Throughout court proceedings the accused maintained their innocence and pleaded not guilty.

The matter was remanded to August 27 for further sentencing proceedings.

The State indicated they would argue for a custodial sentence while the defence indicated they would argue for a fine and non-custodial sentence.

Cape Times