[imagesource:miway]

Insurance company MiWay has been dealing with a client who reported his Mercedes-Benz stolen after he was allegedly drugged by two unknown women he met one night at a party.

MiWay rejected the insurance claim put forth by Thabo Molefe, refusing to pay him over R164 000 as the replacement value of his stolen vehicle. The insurance company alleged that Molefe had breached the contract, suspecting some fraudulent activities on his part.

Molefe then approached the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court, which ordered MiWay to accept the claim and pay him to replace his stolen vehicle.

IOL reported that Molefe first made the case that the car was stolen on January 22, 2018, saying that he could not remember much of the events when his car was stolen, however, he was adamant that his 2010 vehicle was stolen.

On the day of the incident, Molefe and his friend Victor went out to a social event where they tried to get some money from a guy named Roy, who owed him, and that’s when they met the two unknown women who asked for a lift home.

Molefe, when he submitted his claim, said that they left around midnight, however, in a subsequent WhatsApp message, he informed Miway’s assessor that he could have underestimated the time they left the venue and it could have been later because they only arrived at his cousin’s house some time after 4am.

Molefe said that he dropped off his cousin who was also out with them, and it was during this time that he started to not feel well. The two women were waiting in his car and they wanted to buy food. They drove to a nearby garage to buy food and that was the last thing he remembered.

The next day, Molefe said he was woken up, feeling “dizzy”, by an unknown individual in an unknown location without his vehicle, cell phone, keys and wallet.

He went to the nearest police station to open a case of theft of his motor vehicle. By that time, he did not know what had happened to his friend Victor who had been in the car with him.

He later established that Victor was also suffering from the same symptoms as he was. He said Victor took about two weeks to recover from the said illness. They suspected that the two women had drugged them.

Two days later, he was still feeling dizzy, and went to the doctor who booked him off from work – MiWay assessors received that doctor’s certificate.

While most of what was found in MiWay’s investigation corroborated Molefe’s story, they still rejected the claim.

After viewing evidence from both parties, acting Judge Collen Kgaolo Stephen Matshitse said Miway failed to provide evidence of how Molefe tried to defraud them.

The judge then made MiWay cough up the R164 000 for the replacement car, as well as any legal fees.

[source:iol]