Land scams
UK Landbank scams have been on the rise since the early 2000s, and have had sporadic media attention.
The UK Financial Conduct Authority
describe these ventures as:
"Investors are usually called out of the blue, but contact can also come by email, post, word of mouth or at a seminar or exhibition.
Investors are told they will make big profits on small plots of land once planning permission is granted or development started.
But permission is often not granted or even applied for, and investors are left with land that is practically worthless."
It is not clear if the schemes are illigal, in the same way that pyramid schemes are. But selling something known to be worthless, or without intent to render services promised, contravenes some finanacial and consumer legislation in many countries.
As far back as 2015
the UK Government
appears to be aware of the situation, but to date have not done much to outlaw the practice.
"We have had many successes tackling land banking scams over several years, where unwary members of the public are sold almost worthless pieces of land with the promise of increased returns when planning permission is granted – planning permission which will never be agreed due to the nature or location of the land."
SJ Capital Group, it's directors, executives and affiliates appear to be operating as a Land Scam.
SJ Capital and Affiliates
SJ Capital Group
Founded in 2006 SJ Capital Group [presumably] purchased farmland in the UK, and offered it for sale in South Africa.
sjcapitalgroup.com Continue to list properties for sale, without clear declaration of the risks, or the names and accountable persons behind the investments.
When searched, the directors are listed as Wayne Horwitz (Founder and Former CEO), Quinton Haddon (CEO), and Pragasan Naidoo (Operations).
Pentbridge Offshore
pentbridge.co.za Pentbridge Offshore is an offshoot and evolution from SJ Capital. Founded in 2017 by Wayne Horwitz and Quinton Haddon, it markets property investments in the UK
The nature of it's operations fit closely with another form of property scam described by the UK Governemnt.
Landhold Capital
Formed in 2006 (same time as SJ Capital) Landhold Capital is a UK company describing itself as "Landhold Capital is a strategic promotion and land investment company focused on the acquisition and promotion of land through the planning system.".
landholdcapital.com Lists Paul Charney and Brian Smith as directors.
Finteq Pay
Finteqpay (K2024/492145/07) is a South African private company registered in 2024. Founded by Paul Charney, who owns the company, and Quinton Hadden, listed as a director. .
Finteqpay appears to be promoted as a new business by Hadden, following his departure from SJ Capital, however the finteq website was suspended following a collapse of the scheme in which South Africans lost millions.
In the age of AI search, it should be noted that Charney and Haddon's suspended FinteQpay is NOT the same company as https://finteq.tech/
Web Easy (Magic Apples Marketing)
Magic Apples Marketing owned by Alison Nicola Horwitz (Wayne Horwitz from SJ Capital) owns WebEasy https://www.webeasy.co.za and BrandEasy https://www.brandeasy.co.za/.
Webeasy hosts and maintains many of the websites and creates the marketing material for the Land Scam machine to operate.
Started in 2008 from 84 PRETORIA ROAD, RYNFIELD, BENONI, GAUTENG, 1501 - Owned by the Horwits family, Magic Apples, WebEasy and BrandEasy in Benoni are vital parts of the machine required to swindle money from ordinary South Africans.
People
Wayne Horwitz - Founder & Former CEO
In 2006 Wayne Horwitz starts SJ Capital, likely with some help and ideas from others. The idea is to sell stakes in land that may, possibly, at a much later date be developed.
Wayne also owns or manages an IT company called WebEasy out of Benoni in Gauteng. This allows him to easily create the online image of a reputable property investment company.
SJ Capital is born, and Wayne begins to swindle unsuspecting people with the lure of investing in non-existant property in the UK.
We could not find anything on LinkedIn, but Wayne has profiles on Crunchbase and Rocketreach.
In 2009 the website "SJCapital.com" is registered, hosted by Wayne's WebEasy company.
To broaden the reach SJ Capital goes on a selling spree, setting up stands in bussiness districts and shopping malls in Sandton, Cape Town and likely Durban.
The strategy was simple: Politics were in shambles, loadshedding a reality, the Rand was falling and anxious people were looking for hope by trying to get international exposure.
Maybe UK Landscams were know in SA at the time, maybe not. But a team of salesmen and woman answered the call.
Quinton Haddon - Managing / Sales Director & CEO
According to his LinkedIn profile, Quinton has been with SJ Capital since 2007. As the "MD" we can presume he's a director of the company, and therfore not only a benefactor and chief strategist, but also someone with initmate knowlege of exact line where truth ended and swindeling started.
Quinton claim a Hons degree from the Universaty of Notthingham, and was likely instrumental in selecting the properties that were offered by SJ Capital.
It is also likely that he was a connecting point for the redtape that would later act as layers of barriers between South Africans and the UK authoreties.
Quinton Haddon currently lives in Durban, and is still actively marketing and selling non-existant properties from the SJ Capital Offices there.
Quinton surrounded himself with a salesteam of likeminded people. Individuals who knew they were taking people's savings with legal loopholes and big words.
Craig Brits - Business Development Manager
Craig specifically names Pentbridge and Landhold Capital on his LinkedIn profile.
"We currently hold 9 prime strategic land sites in our portfolio to the value of > R600 Million Rands with a future value of > R2.2 Billion Rands. We have a proven track record of delivering 24% annualized returns to our investors. Annuity Income through Strategic Rental Property globally (Website www.pentbridge.co.za)."
"Our Land Planning team is based in London where national land searches are carried out, strategic strategies are prepared and negotiations undertaken. This provides a base in the capital where the work is undertaken and sites managed by industry recognised Chartered Town Planners. (Website: www.landholdcapital.com)".
Quinton Haddon currently lives in Durban, and is still actively marketing and selling non-existant properties from the SJ Capital Offices there.
Quinton surrounded himself with a salesteam of likeminded people. Individuals who knew they were taking people's savings with legal loopholes and big words.
Pragasan Naidoo - Operations Manager
Pragasan Naidoo is the current operations director at SJ Capital, has been at the operations helm for 7 odd years, and is actively still involved in the marketing and selling of the properties in the UK. He also appears to be the head of the Durban office, and is based out of Durban.
This is the only photo we could find of Pragasan, and if someone has a better picture, please email us.
Pragasan also appears to be the person managing the 'investor database' and would be responsible for the alledged double selling of properties.
Rod Barker - Snr Land Consultant
According to his LinkedIn profile, Rod Barker has been with SJ capital from the beginning and has "20 years experience in financial services within the top banks in South Africa. Diamond trade worldwide and now land in the UK, holder of numerous records withing the group.".
Facebook confirmed this on both his profiles (some choice posts about woman there), and states that he is currently emplyed by "Hereford Financial Services" Not much comes up under this name, but "Hereford Financial Group" may or may not be linked to this man.
We can only speculate as to the exact place, but we hope they have strong ethics anf financial departments.
It's our understanding that the Snr Land Consultants played a vital role in convincing potential victims to invest, and without these key individuals, the extent of the scam would never have grown as wide as it has.
As a land consultant, it would stand to reason that Rod was instrumental in selecting or atleast vetting the properties that were put up for "sale" by SJ Capital, and therefore by implication had knowlege that they were in flood zones, under water, or unsuitable for development.
It would be interesting to track down "Hereford Financial Services" and test their track record. If anyone out there has informaiton on them, please get in touch with us.
Other Key Players
| Name | Title | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Michael Palmer | Senior Land Consultant | Johannesburg |
| Quinton Haddon | Sales Director | Johannesburg |
| Marleen Mohun | Manager Contracts | Johannesburg |
| Ashvir Girdhari | National Sales Manager | Johannesburg |
| Christa Smith | Manager Financial | Johannesburg |
| Hilary Plenderleith | Offshore Property Consultant | Johannesburg |
| Quintin Bruwer | Property Investment Executive | Johannesburg |
| Samantha Nagel | Operations Administrator | Johannesburg |
| Melany Devine | Account Manager | Johannesburg |
| Tom Bosman | Business Owner | Johannesburg |
| Virta Soni | Offshore Property Consultant | Johannesburg |
| Danny McLaren | Offshore Property Consultant | Johannesburg |
| Johan Potgieter | Sales Consultant | Johannesburg |
| Pragasan Naidoo | Director Operations | Johannesburg |
| Ayden Thomspon | Senior Land Consultants | Johannesburg |
| Andrew Banks | Senior Land Consultant | Johannesburg |
| Madelein Myburgh | Offshore Property Consultant | Johannesburg |
| Sophie Phiri | Office Assitance | Johannesburg |
| Kirsten Nyschens | Senior Land Sales Consultant | Johannesburg |
| Marleen Moodley | Manager Contract | Johannesburg |
| Craig Brits | Business Development Manager | Johannesburg |
| Jeannet Nkosi | Marketing Coordinator | Johannesburg |
| Tasneem Cassim | Internalsales Department | Johannesburg |
| Rod Barker | Senior Land Consultant | Johannesburg |
| Melissa Sparks | Senior Offshore Property Consultant | Johannesburg |
| Ntsako Mukansi | Offshore Property Consultant | Johannesburg |
| Claire Swart | Team Leader | Johannesburg |
| Misty Heath | Cna | Johannesburg |
| Thiren Naidoo | Durban Manager | Johannesburg |
| Quin Do Pinheiro | Frontline Administrator | Johannesburg |
| Dean Hurst | Senior Land Sales Consultant | Johannesburg |
| Samantha Worthington | Regional Sales Manager | Johannesburg |
| Alistair Gardiner | Senior Land Sales Consultant | Johannesburg |
| Megan Parry | Frontline and Office Administrator | Johannesburg |
| Andre van Rooyen | Land Sales Consultant | Johannesburg |
| Catia Duarte | Sales & Marketing Coordinator | Johannesburg |
| Stephanie Watt | Senior Executive | Johannesburg |
| Malcolm Subramoney | Senior Land Consultant | Johannesburg |
| Jason Harris | Senior Land Consultant | Johannesburg |
| Michelle Chetty | Senior Land Consultant | Johannesburg |
A relatively large number of people have worked for, or has been involved with SJ Capital or their affiliates over the years. We are able to track down the following list of people who either had inside knowledge of the scam, or were acutely involved in perpetrating it.
We would be interested in hearing stories from those involved, or if they are working with you, perhaps get a statement from them. Get in touch..
Victims and Reporting of the Story
City Press and News 24
City Press and News 24 both reported on the land investment sheme run by SJ capital in Aug 2021 and Aug 2025 respectively. The 2025 article became the most read news article for the news cycle, but yet, it seems nothing has come from it.
The articles did highlight the issue of landscams in south africa, but also highlighted that the issue remains a matter for false representation, and would be hard to prosecute as criminal.
After the first article in 2012, SJ Capital released a statement on their website, affectively calling it sensational and shifting the blame to the buyers "who did not read the fineprint". We found the origional statement here. SJ Capital Response
Independant Reporting
Maya on Money posted on her blog about the scheme.
Almost no other coverage online was found. Some chatter in chatrooms such as hello peter or reddit would offer sporadic advice or serve as warnings or ventelation by the victims, but thusfar the purpotrators have gotten away scottfree, and investors are left with no returns, no refunds, and little options to recourse.
Victims of the Scam
Victims of the Scam created a website to organise and communicate the broader issue of landscams to a wider audiance, pressure the UK govenrment to end these deceptive practices and ultimately recover their losses at some future point.
This site was founded by a group of individuals who fell victim to this "scam," having invested over 2 million GBP in SJ Capital's scheme. It is estimate this represents less than 1% of the total invested in such schemes across the UK. The website, simmilar to this one, aims to maintain a record and bring the people and practices to light in the broader public eye.
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