Tshwane car dealer claims yet another victim

Stephanius Pieterse has had to use lawyers to help him get his R110,000 back from Martin Roux, the owner of MDCA Consulting, whose car dealership is based in Equestria, Pretoria.

Pieterse had bought a second-hand Suzuki Swift 1.2 auto from Roux last year as a birthday gift to his wife, Adri. Roux failed to deliver the car and also made several promises to refund Pieterse. 

In July last year, Sowetan Consumer wrote about Eastern Cape entrepreneur Lulama Metuse, who was duped allegedly by Roux after she bought a Toyota Hilux bakkie for R353,000 from him.

She had seen the car on the internet and when she went to view it, she realised it was not the diesel type she had requested. She paid the full amount and Roux promised that he would deliver the correct vehicle. But he failed to do so and also made promises to refund her but this never materialised. A case a fraud was opened against him and he is due to appear in the Pretoria magistrate’s court this month. 

Pieterse said he was introduced to Roux by his wife’s colleague, who had bought a car from him. Roux told him about a car that was being sold by a doctor in Cape Town and that he would facilitate for it to be brought to Gauteng. Pieterse made several payments to Roux including a R5,000 for the car be dispatched to his house. 

“Roux pressured me to pay a deposit because the doctor [the seller] needed money to go overseas to do an operation. I paid the money and he promised that the car would be sent to me before my wife’s birthday in November. Roux then told me that the doctor’s daughter had a car accident on the way to drop off the car in Cape Town for transportation to Gauteng. That’s when I thought something was fishy with the deal,” said Pieterse.

“I then demanded a full refund as I could do nothing with a damaged car. Roux then started making excuses. I had also traced the car’s registration plate to another owner in the Free State. That is when I panicked and I knew something was wrong and that Roux had tricked me,” said Pieterse.

Roux told Sowetan Consumer yesterday that he was in debt and could not pay Pieterse all his money. “We had agreed that I’d pay him R10,000 a month but I have been struggling financially,” said Roux.

In January, Pieterse hired a lawyer to draft a letter of demand, which was sent to Roux the same month. In the letter, the lawyer states: “Due to the previous transactions between yourself and sheriff deputy Steven Britz, our client trusted you and made payments to you from 11 October to 31 October 2022.

“After defrauding our client, you disappeared and rendered numerous excuses as to where the vehicle would be. It is clear that there never was a vehicle and you enriched yourself with our client’s hard-earned money. You then informed our client that you would repay him. Of course that was a further lie and our client is still patiently waiting for the monies to reflect in his account,” read the letter.

“We are appalled and nauseated by your conduct, and our client must inform potential customers on social media to not fall in the same trap as he did. It’s clear from your actions (current and previous) that you are a fraudster and a scam artists and this needs to stop,” read the letter.

The lawyer gave Roux until February 2 to refund the R110,000 but he did not meet the deadline .