Swakopmund second vehicle dealer René Koegelenberg admitted this week that his business’ cash flow situation has deteriorated to a position where he still owes “five people” cash as sales proceeds for second vehicles that he sold on their behalf through his car dealership, René Koegelenberg Motors.

He charged this week he has ceased selling second hand vehicles on people’s behalf, as he is no longer in a position to immediately reimburse customers with the sales proceeds.
Koegelenberg already explained to Informanté last week that the demise of his cash flow started as a nasty consequence of people who owe him money, but who have not honoured their commitments. It eventually came to a point where he not only withheld the commission of people whose vehicles he sold, but he also withheld the sales proceeds.
Vehicle owners feel cheated and one person already laid a charge of theft under false pretense for sales proceeds of N$170 000 that he has not yet received for a vehicle sold many months ago. Another person, whose name is withheld because his legal action is sub judicae, said earlier this week that he read with shock and anger in Informanté of Koegelenberg’s situation and threatened to take action unless he gets his sales proceeds of N$110 000 today.
A former client of Koegelenberg, who also read the article in Informanté last week, said they struggled for weeks to get their money out of him. Informanté has it on record that she threatened to report Koegelenberg to all commercial banks to decline any vehicle loans to customers where Koegelenberg is part of the deal.
Informanté requested a public statement from Koegelenberg to explain his situation, as the practice of selling people’s vehicles with the knowledge that he is in a financial squeeze and will not immediately pay over the sales proceeds could add an element of criminal intent to his actions. Furthermore, it is believed Koegelenberg sold some vehicles without written agreements with clients, which could further jeopardise his legal position if a reasonable person’s test is applied. A reasonable person would expect the sales proceeds to be paid out within days after a sale has taken place. This same reasonable person would expect Koegelenberg to only withhold his commission.
At the time of going to press Koegelenberg’s public statement was not yet forthcoming.