When John Groaves sold his property in North Cyprus the last thing he expected was for his Advocate, Pinar Ocal Gokboru, to get hacked and lose his money.
John Groaves and his wife Joan, both nearly 80 years old, sold their apartment at Sea Vista in Catalkoy on the 26th September 2018 for £60 000. He told NCFP that his solicitor was Pinar Ocal Gokboru of Alsancak near Kyrenia and for some reason she decided to send the residue from the sale, £52 000, in two transactions. John gave Pinar Ocal Gokboru his bank details and if she had sent all the money to that account then we would have heard nothing of the matter as the £32 000 went through without a problem.
It was then that the alleged scam took place, Pinar Ocal Gokboru says she received an email for John asking her to send the residue of his money to a totally different bank.
Any competent professional would have questioned this email and confirmed with the client that these were his wishes. If the email had asked for the money to be sent to a Nigerian Bank you have to wonder whether Pinar Ocal Gokboru would have transferred the money even then.
When the scam was discovered, Pinar Ocal Gokboru sent John evidence that she had received the email and evidence that she had transferred the money to Ulster Bank. You can see from the scam email that John’s email address is at the top. As you can see on Wikipedia: Email Spoofing it is such a simple process to fake an email address that anyone reading this article could create a spoof email in a few minutes.
John then discovered that Pinar Ocal Gokboru had no insurance to cover against losing client monies as a result of fraud. In the UK solicitors are covered, as in the case of reported in Today’s Conveyencer. When John asked for Pinar Ocal Gokboru to sort the matter out as it was she who had sent the money and was therefore the person who should contact Ulster Bank, according to him, she:
“just told me to f**k off and get on with it, and put the phone down on me, but later that day phoned me back and said sorry about what she said, but said there is nothing I can do about it now, what do you want me to do pay it out of my own money, I think she then knew she had been hacked, but tired (sic) to blame me.”
John tried to get both North Cyprus and UK solicitors to pursue her for the money but they took his fees and reported that their was nothing they could do.
Cyprus Today reported on his case but without mentioning Pinar Ocal Gokboru so as usual ex-pats have no idea which advocate to avoid handling their money.
Expat ‘lost almost half money’ from sale of home
Cyprus Today
15 Jun 2019
EXCLUSIVE By KEREM HASAN Chief Reporter
AN EXPAT property-seller has warned others to exercise care after claiming that he received little more than half the money from the sale of his property in Çatalköy.
John Groaves, 79, and his wife Joan, 78, said their lawyer told them that their three-bedroom apartment on the Sea Vista development had sold for £60,000 on September 26 last year — but he only received £32,000, with the rest apparently deposited in someone else’s account.
Cyprus Today was unable to reach the couple’s lawyer, despite several attempts, but Mr Groaves, a retired driver, made a plea for people to “be careful”, even when dealing with members of the TRNC legal profession.
The couple paid £65,000 for their dream
home in 2009, with Mr Groaves, a father-of-two, declaring Cyprus “the most beautiful island” after serving with the British army in Dhekelia in 1960 and 1961.
Mr and Mrs Groaves, who live in Sussex, decided to sell the property for medical reasons. “After deducations of taxes and costs, I was to be sent [£52,000] but the lawyer only sent us a total of £32,000,” said Mr Groaves.
Asked why the full amount had not been sent, he said, they had been told that was “the way it’s done for safety reasons, in case the money is lost”.
“Then we found out the second part of the money never landed in our account. When we contacted her asking, ‘Where is the second half of the money?’ she said she had sent it to an Irish bank in Ulster. I said I never told her to do such a thing. She claimed . . . she had received a communication to that effect.”
Mr Groaves said he contacted police in the UK and Ireland at the end of October last year.
“I also went to another [TRNC] lawyer who told me there was nothing that could be done legally because the advocate had no indemnity insurance.”
Asked why he had waited so long before making the issue public, he said: “I didn’t want to upset anyone and risk losing the money. I thought we would act in good faith and hopefully the money would be found and come to us.
“I don’t want anyone else to go through this nightmare. It has really upset us and caused us hardship.”
John even contacted the North Cyprus Bar Council but still awaits a reply.
Still it goes on….no chance for anyone defrauded in the TRNC Turkish Republic of No Consequences. If you have money to burn, then go ahead buy and invest there…if not, rent.
As one District Court Judge put it…buying in north Cyprus is like gambling on the stock market.
13 years on since Pauline was defrauded and yet NOTHING has changed. Except for those who have passed on waiting for justice. It will not come.