A SOSHANGUVE, Gauteng, "fraudster" has taken a community radio station for a ride and has also used an attorney to allegedly defraud more unsuspecting consumers.

James Kunutu, Godfrey Mitihamme and Nomsa Kwete are furious because they say they were tricked into parting with their money .

The Soshanguve Community Radio Station and Manong Badenhorst Attorneys of Pretoria now have to put out the fires after their associate, Abel Selota of Decor Exclusives, had used them.

The radio station has unbudgeted expenditure of R70,000 and the attorneys are left with a debt of about R70,000 that must be repaid.

Attorney WP Burger, a partner in the law firm Manong Badenhorst Attorneys, says the law firm is innocent. He adds that his company was not aware of deposits into the company' s trust account.

He has undertaken to refund the consumers as soon as his firm's auditors have traced the money in their trust account.

The consumers paid R57,500 towards the refurbishment of their houses after listening to a radio show in which the alleged fraudster, Selota was a guest.

Selota told listeners he was a builder and wanted to give back to the Soshanguve and Winterveldt communities, especially elderly disabled people, the radio station's Nolulama Sithole says.

She says the station decided to bring Selota on board because he was so convincing that he wanted to serve the people.

But Sithole says the station's reputation took a knock when Selota demolished a pensioner's house and disappeared without rebuilding it into the user-friendly house for a disabled person he had promised.

She says the station was celebrating its 16th anniversary and decided to partner with Selota.

Sithole says Selota won the station's trust after he presented his excellent community service profile.

She says Selota appeared on a talk show and they identified the house of a pensioner with disabilities in Winterveldt.

The house was demolished in May and shortly afterwards Selota vanished, Sithole says.

"After negotiations with our board of trustees they agreed to release R70,000 that was used to rebuild the pensioner's house," Sithole says.

Since then, Soshanguve Community Radio Station has been inundated with complaints from people, claiming Selota has disappeared with their money too.

Sithole says they believed Selota because he gave them details of an attorney who was known to help people in the community.

• Vegetable seller Kwete, 40, says she saved R10,000 to extend her three-roomed house, which she shares with her five children.

"I also took a R5,000 loan because Selota told me he would extend my house as soon as he received the full amount," Kwete says.

She says Selota told her that he works on a first-come-first-serve basis to be fair to all his clients.

"Had I known he would disappear I would never have paid him," she says and adds that she does not even have a receipt for the R5000 she paid Selota in cash.

• Kunutu of Mabopane, Gauteng, paid R25,000 into Manong Badenhorst Attorney's trust account in the hope of extending his three-roomed house.
• Mitihamme, also of Mabopane, paid R17,500 towards the refurbishment of his house. His only consolation is that R12 500 was deposited into the attorneys trust account. He has no proof, however, that he paid R5 000 to Selota because he was not given a receipt.

Burger has confirmed that a relative of Selota is his client.

"He is the son-in-law of a client of mine. I did some work for him early in the year and I am shocked that the contracts you have are different to the ones he instructed me to work on," Burger says.

He says that he was approached by five consumers to claim money from their trust account , but that he could not release the money before finding Selota.

Burger says he also has no records of the claimants, is not acting on behalf of Selota, and has never received instructions to receive payment from the victims.

Burger says that his law firm will sort out this problem as soon as their auditors trace the money in the trust account.