DA councillor’s wife gets bail after arrest for theft
THE wife of a DA councillor in Nelson Mandela Bay was arrested yesterday for theft totalling almost R900 000. Yvette Greyling, 43, was released on bail of R1 000 after appearing briefly in the Port Elizabeth Commercial Crimes Court. Her husband Francois, a DA ward councillor in Despatch, was not present in court. He said yesterday that his wife had been “hung out to dry” and had been duped by her former colleagues and business partners. Greyling is accused of stealing R880 150 while working as an estate agent at Just Letting Uitenhage between 2013 and last year. When her business, a franchise of Just Property Group, ran into financial trouble in 2013, she allegedly began misappropriating the funds in her clients’ trust accounts. Greyling opened Just Letting Uitenhage in 2007.
The Just Property Group encouraged franchise owners to keep two trust accounts to separate the deposit amounts from the rental amounts. The rental trust account would receive payments from tenants monthly. From these payments, certain disbursements would be made and the remainder would be paid to the landlord. The deposit trust account received payments on a regular basis from tenants paying deposits. This money would remain in the account until the tenant vacated the property, when the deposit was either refunded to the tenant or used for repairs to the property. Greyling was the only person with access to the two accounts, as well as her general business account. The state alleges that sometime in 2013 she started experiencing cash-flow problems and began siphoning off money from the deposit trust account. Nearly R900 000 was withdrawn from the account to
pay rentals due to landlords and meet the firm’s business expenses, with the remainder allegedly being misappropriated for her own use. On November 1 last year, the Just Property Group took over the administration of Just Letting Uitenhage. An investigation was done and the alleged misappropriation was discovered. It is also alleged that Greyling had been working without a valid fidelity fund certificate since June 1 last year. Francois Greyling said yesterday that although his wife needed to face the music, she was taking the fall for her former colleagues.
“People make mistakes and she will have to face the music. But now that there are problems, the others have disappeared,” he said. Nelson Mandela Bay DA caucus leader Retief Odendaal said that at the end of the day it was not a DA councillor who had been arrested. “The law must run its course. It is unfortunate, but it is a personal matter,” he said. “It does not affect our councillor or the work he does.” The case was postponed to January 7 for Greyling to apply for Legal Aid representation. As part of her bail conditions, she must report to the Uitenhage police station daily and may not leave the Nelson Mandela Bay area without permission from the investigating officer.
