What he perceived as a lucrative business opportunity turned into a nightmare for Wayne Nicholson when a trusted friend he met at a Port Elizabeth pub squandered about R127,000 he had given him to invest.
The money, it emerged in court, was spent on KFC, Nandos, Mc Donald’s and gambling at the Boardwalk Casino.
This was the evidence in the Port Elizabeth Commercial Crimes Court, where Theodore Brent Trumpeter was found guilty of nine counts of fraud.
Trumpeter, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, which was suspended.
He was ordered to repay the loss suffered by Nicholson.
Nicholson said he had befriended Trumpeter soon after he arrived in Port Elizabeth from East London in 2012.
The pair met at the Blinking Owl Pub in Newton Park, where Trumpeter introduced himself as a chartered accountant. His WhatsApp profile said he was employed by auditing firm KPMG, although he never worked for the company.
“He was always neatly dressed. The impression I got was that he was doing well for himself,” Nicholson said.
“He acquired his first property in Newton Park.”
The friendship quickly blossomed when Nicholson, who owned an Isuzu pick-up truck, needed a load body for it.
Trumpeter indicated that he could source one for him at R4,900 and fit it, the court heard. It never happened.
Days later, Nicholson gave Trumpeter another R540 in cash to acquire tail lights for the same vehicle, but they were never fitted either.
Nicholson said he had given Trumpeter another R7,500 in December 2012.
This was after Trumpeter informed him of an investment opportunity in online sharetrading and suggested that they should invest together.
In January 2013, Nicholson transferred R2,500 into Trumpeter’s FNB account after Trumpeter claimed that he had seen another investment opportunity with Lonmin.
The court heard that in February 2013 Trumpeter informed Nicholson that he was going to start a textile distribution company, in which Trumpeter’s girlfriend’s father was also involved.
Trumpeter convinced Nicholson to invest R50,000 and said that he would have a 50% share in the business.
Nicholson spoke of the trust he had in Trumpeter and how, on April 10 2013, he had transferred R62,870 into Trumpeter’s account.
When prosecutor advocate Wilhelm de Villiers asked him why he had done this, Nicholson replied: “I lost my wallet. I feared that the money in my account may be compromised.
“I instructed him to invest R15,000 in an online investment scheme and the difference of R47,870 into the material business.”
When De Villiers asked Nicholson whether he had received the body for the Isuzu bakkie or seen the share certificate for the purported investment, he replied: “No. He [Trumpeter] kept on giving excuses one after another.
“I trusted him. We went on holiday in Cape Town together.”
De Villiers said: “It would appear [Trumpeter] has a love for KFC and McDonald’s.
“He even bought airtime with the investment money.
“He made a cash withdrawal of R250 and used it on Nandos in Greenacres after you [Nicholson] deposited R7,500.”
Nicholson said he had seen Trumpeter gambling at the Boardwalk Casino.