When deceased property developer and sky-diving enthusiast, Rob Taylor generously donated his Audi R8 to two car guards at the foot of table mountain in January 2010, he probably didn’t bet on those same car guards would have fraud charges brought against them by Taylor’s business partner, and de facto owner of the car.

After figuring out that it is entirely impractical to keep a R2 million vehicle as a fixed asset in your possesion as a struggling foreign immigrant in the face of high living costs and hostile law enforcement, the car guards did the only logical thing, and sold the vehicle to the Audi Centre in Cape Town for R1,25 Million.

Recent reports suggested that the guards sold the car, which resulted in Terrence Aupiais, Taylor’s business colleague laying fraud charges.

Aupiais challenged the validity of the sale on the grounds that the car belonged to the Angels Way Trust, of which he is the sole trustee. He claims in court papers that Taylor bought the car on behalf of the trust.

Aupiais alleged that the vehicle was given to the men to raise funds for the underprivileged, and not to be resold.

Angels Way is the sky-diving business that Taylor owned and ran in Howick, KZN.

The IOL story suggests that the car guards have since pocketed the loot and “fled to the Congo”. Naughty, IOL, very naughty. You don’t suppose that the congolese gentlemen were in South Africa in the first place in a bid to improve their economic prospects, having exited a failed state? And you also don’t suppose that said men still love their country very much, and often fantasised about returning home with the means to ensure a happy life for themselves and their families, despite the lack of basic state architecture?

That’s all that these men have done. Yes, it may have been disingenuous of them to suggest that they would use the vehicle for raising funds for charity, as was previously reported, but was that necessarily a a condition stipulated by Taylor prior to the handing over of the vehicle?

Perhaps, but we won’t be able to prove that conclusively now, will we?

Let’s acknowledge the elephant in the room; why has Aupiais raised this objection only after the death of Taylor?

Ah ha, so it was too good to be true, neh?

[Source : IOL]

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