A 63-year-old North West woman who swindled potential home buyers out of R744,000 while pretending to be an estate agent was on Friday sentenced to five years in prison.

In February this year, the Mmabatho regional court found Priscilla Zingiwe Molosiwa guilty of three counts of fraud. She had been in custody since her conviction.

It is alleged that in September 2011, Molosiwa claimed to be a real estate agent and represented a homeowner who wanted to sell her house in Mahikeng.

“The accused subsequently found a buyer who made a transfer of R200,000 into her bank account as she had allegedly represented herself as the facilitator to transfer the property.

“She however appropriated the money for her own benefit and failed to facilitate the transfer,” Hawks spokesperson Capt Tlangelani Rikhotso said.

Rikhotso said Molosiwa also used the same method to scam another unsuspecting victim in December 2013.

“After the potential buyer transferred an amount of R294,000 which was the purchase price of another property in Montshiwa, she allegedly only transferred R100,000 to the seller and kept the balance for herself,” Rikhotso said.

In May 2014, Molosiwa defrauded yet another buyer who had transferred R350,000 to purchase a house.

The three counts of fraud were investigated by the Hawks’ serious commercial crime investigation unit which found the accused was not registered with the Estate Agency Affairs Board.

She was summonsed to appear before court in February 2019 and was released on R2,000 bail.

Molosiwa was sentenced to three years each for the first two counts of fraud and five years for the third fraud count.

The first two counts will be served concurrently with the five-year sentence.

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