Cape Town – Former Western Cape attorney and conveyancer Rugaya van der Schyff was sentenced to 55 years in prison after being found guilty on a series of charges ranging from fraud to money laundering and theft.
The 57-year-old was sentenced by the Bellville serious commercial crimes court.
According to Western Cape NPA spokesperson Zinzi Hani, Van der Schyff was arrested twice: in 2019 and October 2022 when she was nabbed by the Hawks Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team in Cape Town on a warrant of arrest, for charges of fraud and theft of more than R500 000.
“She was struck off from the roll of attorney in 2017 following an interdict application which was lodged in 2016 and was subsequently arrested on the 28 March 2019 for misappropriating almost R4.8 million from a trust fund. Van Der Schyff was released on R20 000 bail on these fraud charges,” said Hani.
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“Additional to this, she allegedly continued facilitating offers to purchase several properties from 2019, knowing full well her exclusion from her professional practice handed down by the Western Cape High Court.
“These new allegations maintained the impression that she was an attorney and conveyancer entitled to practise as such. She allegedly misled the community which resulted in their financial detriment. The misappropriation was done in her professional capacity as an additional duty of care and diligence in dealing with the transfer of properties and the Registrar of Deeds.”
TimesLIVE reports that Hani confirmed Van der Schyff was convicted of 48 charges.
“Van der Schyff was sentenced to a combined 10 years’ imprisonment for two counts of money laundering, four years for contravening the Legal Practice Act, another 10 years for nine counts of fraud and a further 18 years for four additional counts of fraud, suspended for five years with conditions.
“On 30 counts of theft, the former attorney was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment, while an additional three years’ imprisonment was suspended for five years on an additional count of theft,” Hani was quoted as saying.
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Compiled by Junaid Benjamin
