CONMAN SCAMS LOCAL BUSINESSES By Hedda Mittner 2013-04-26 14:33 This photo of the conman who was active in the Hermanus area just after Easter was captured on the security camera of Zoete Inval Guesthouse in Northcliff. A conman who has been described as “smooth-talking” and “very convincing”, spent at least a week in Hermanus at the beginning of April, pulling the wool over the eyes of several business owners in town. Residents and businesses should be on the lookout for a young man, probably in his early thirties, who is under 1,8m in height, with dark hair and a light olive complexion. He goes by several names, including Brendyn Mark Finlay, Brendan Mark Finlayson, and Brynn Stewart. By swindling Hermanus locals, he has succeeded in enjoying accommodation, food and even a lift to Cape Town without paying for anything. According to Amy van der Walt from Whalers Guesthouse on Main Road, he checked in on Wednesday 3 April as Brendyn Mark Finlay. He had just been appointed as the new head chef at The Marine, he told Van der Walt, and had come straight from the airport. He wanted to stay for three weeks, but could only pay for the first night as the airline he’d used to fly to Cape Town had lost his luggage. The next day, when Van der Walt insisted on payment, he said his luggage had been found and he would do an electronic transfer, but the money never reached her account as he’d supposedly made a mistake with the account number. Suitably suspicious by now, Van der Walt called The Marine and was told that no-one by that name had been appointed as their head chef. “On Saturday morning I told him he could no longer stay here and he left,” Van der Walt says. That seems to have been the same day he swindled another resident, Ben Kotzé, who is the owner of the Meat on Main butchery. “The shop was very busy and he came in asking for rib eye steak, saying he is the assistant chef at The Marine and the kitchen needed the meat urgently. He left with about four-and-a-half kilos without paying,” Kotzé says. “He’d given me his name Brynn Stewart and a cellphone number, but when I tried to reach him later, there was no answer. And when I called The Marine and was told that they do not know this man, I knew I’d been conned.” According to Kotzé the man is very presentable and gave him no reason to doubt his story. “I fell for it hook, line and sinker!” At least Kotzé can take comfort in the fact that he was not the only one. The next person to be taken in by his scams was Marilyn van der Velden of Zoete Inval Traveler’s Lodge, also situated on Main Road. “I was not here when he arrived on Monday evening, 8 April, but I spoke to him the next morning. He told me he had flown in from Johannesburg and that his luggage had gone missing. He was checked in for two nights under the name of Mark Brendan Finlayson. After breakfast he said he was going to town to draw cash to pay for his accommodation and we never saw him again,” Van der Velden says. “He obviously knows Hermanus well. He dropped the names of people well known in the local hospitality industry and said he was planning on opening a restaurant at Shimmi’s. His local knowledge made him seem very credible.” Perhaps sensing that his scams in Hermanus may be catching up with him, the man’s next move was to convince Marius Minnaar from Hermanus Towing to get one of his drivers to take him to Cape Town. “He gave his name as Mr Finlay and told us he was from Sandbaai. The story went that he had lent his car to a friend, who had subsequently disappeared with it. It had only just been found, months later, parked in a garage in Claremont. Two wheels and the battery had apparently been stolen, which is why he needed the car towed back to Hermanus.” Upon arriving in Cape Town, the scamster asked the driver to stop in Claremont at his mother’s place of work so that he could pick up the money to pay for the towing before they fetched the car. The driver waited for more than an hour, but the man did not come back. “When my driver phoned me, I realised we’d been conned,” Minnaar says. These incidents, coupled with the phone calls they’d received to confirm Mr Finlay/Finlayson/Stewart’s employment at The Marine, prompted Hamish Hofmeyr, general manager of The Marine, to send an e-mail out last week to Hermanus Tourism and several business establishments in town, warning them to be aware of this swindler. “People in Hermanus generally consider others to be trustworthy,” says Teressa Jones, manager of Hermanus Tourism. “They need to be more alert.” Van der Velden agrees. “Businesses in Hermanus need to pull together and cooperate by communicating this sort of thing immediately. We allow it to happen by remaining silent. People in Hermanus are very trusting and relaxed, and we should be more vigilant.”
Posted on: Wed, 17 Jul 2013 17:01:25 +0000
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