Reality television personality Kgalalelo Abinokhauno, known as Mrs Leo from Real Housewives of Cape Town, has avoided direct imprisonment after a Bellville court sentenced her to correctional supervision for her role in an online dating scam, reports News24.

The Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court on Monday handed down sentences to four convicted fraudsters involved in a scheme that defrauded two foreign women of more than R3.2m.

Abinokhauno, alongside Nigerian nationals Uguchukwu Nawachukwu, Stanley Osakwe and Bright Odumo Ogedengbe, was convicted of fraud after participating in an elaborate romance scam that targeted the two women, an American and a Canadian.

A fifth accused, Innocent Abinokhauno, who is married to Abinokhauno, absconded before sentencing and remains a wanted person.

The victims were lured through an online dating platform and convinced they were communicating with an American engineer working on a project in SA.

The fictitious engineer later claimed to be facing a series of emergencies and persuaded the women to send money, promising to repay them.

Trusting the representations made to them, the women transferred money into several bank accounts linked to the accused.

The promised repayments never materialised, leaving the victims more than R3.2m out of pocket.

For her role in the scheme, Abinokhauno was sentenced to three years of correctional supervision and four years’ imprisonment, wholly suspended for five years on condition that she is not convicted of a similar offence during that period.

According to News24, she was also declared unfit to possess a firearm.

Ogedengbe received a four-year prison sentence, with two years suspended for five years, effectively leaving him to serve two years behind bars.

Nawachukwu, the head pastor of the Glory Restoration Assembly Church, was found to have played a significant role in laundering proceeds of the fraud through his personal and church bank accounts.

He was sentenced to four years of correctional supervision, with the possibility of conversion to eight months’ direct imprisonment if he fails to comply with its conditions.

Osakwe, found to have been involved in both the fraud and the laundering of the proceeds, was sentenced to six years’ direct imprisonment.

Defence lawyers informed the court appeals against the sentences would be lodged later this week.

Full News24 report