Update

GEORGE NEWS - The Port Elizabeth businessman Tarkan Cakmak (52), who was arrested in 2016 and found guilty of fraud in November 2018, was sentenced in the George Regional Court on Tuesday 4 February.

Cakmak, who conned Gallery 7 in the Eden Meander Lifestyle Centre out of four Persian carpets worth more than R300 000, was handed down five years imprisonment wholly suspended for five years. 

Magistrate Pumela Yono also ordered that he refund the owner of Gallery 7, Nurullah Isparta, the value of the carpets. In 2016 Cakmak took four carpets on consignment, claiming that he first wanted to see if they suited his house in Sands Road in Wilderness. According to store manager Lettie Kümm, Cakmak told her that he wanted to purchase three rugs for his wedding anniversary and he wanted to surprise his wife.

Another employee of Gallery 7 accompanied the suspect to the said address. When they stopped next to the house, the employee was told to get out of the car, after which the suspect made a U-turn, drove off and never returned. He was arrested shortly afterwards at his own carpet business in Greenacres Shopping Centre in Port Elizabeth by the investigating officer, Jydrean Heathcote.

"We are just relieved that it's finally over and we can carry on. It's been dragging on for four years," said Kümm after court proceedings. 

Cakmak was represented by James Riley and Richard Crompton, and Karin Barnard was for the state. 

'We bring you the latest George, Garden Route news'