The woman, who collected thousands of dollars from persons with the promise of delivering vehicles, yesterday said she has done nothing wrong and is operating a legitimate business which has now been tainted by a recent but unrelated court matter.

Dianne De Nobrega, the woman behind the Queenstown A&J Auto Sales Company, yesterday contacted this newspaper following a publication on the complaints from some of her customers who are, among other things, demanding their money back.

But she is maintaining that she has every intention of repaying the customers but she needs some time.

At least two of her customers, who learnt of her business through an advertisement in this newspaper, said they have paid $200,000 and $500,000 respectively to the woman and signed contracts and were expected to pay a further lump sum when the cars were delivered and $40,000 monthly until completion of payment.

They had complained that they had received no cars and cannot get their monies back and have been unable to meet with De Nobrega in recent times.

However, the woman said yesterday that everything went downhill for her “legitimate business” after she appeared in court on a visa scam charge and her name and photograph were printed in the national newspapers last month.

She said some of her 19 customers,  on seeing the stories contacted the office and demanded their monies back and threatened her staff. At that time De Nobrega and her husband were on remand in prison and she could not have dealt with her customers. They were later released on $1M bail each and she said she immediately sent out registered mail  to each of her 19 customers explaining to them that she was away and  she was willing to repay those who wanted their monies back. However, she also asked for 14 days and promised to give them $40,000 extra “for the wait period and any running around they had to do.”

Things took a turn for the worse when all 19 customers demanded their monies back and were prepared to wait for the 14 days.

According to the woman there was no way she could have repaid all of the customers right away and promised them that March 3 was the date for the return of monies and also for the delivery of vehicles if any of them still desired to do business with her company.

She said the customers became aggressive and threatened her life and that of her two assistants forcing her to stop visiting her office.

“Because of security reasons I stopped going to the office because my life was being threatened and I stop taking calls because every  time I answered the phone it was a threat, those who were texting me I texted them back, I have all the records,” the woman said yesterday.

De Nobrega said that she is not in breach of the contracts signed with her customers as the first vehicle was expected to be delivered this month and she again lamented that it is only because of the court issue “that all this is happening to me.”

She confirmed that the matter was reported to the police but she has been in contact with the lawmen and had forwarded them copies of the contracts and also of her business registration.

She said she also sent copies of the letters she had sent to her customers and explained that she was doing nothing illegal. And according to her the lawmen know where she lives and she has not been hiding.

The business was registered last month but De Nobrega began receiving monies from customers since the end of last November. She explained that she did not register the business last year because it would have been for only one month and she would have had to start the entire process again at the beginning of this year so she waited until the year started.

Asked where she was getting the vehicles from, the woman said her “boss was in New York and he was going to buy the vehicles and bring them down.” She said that her boss is a “broker” and while he has had similar business in Trinidad this is his first in Guyana.

“I met him overseas when I went to sell my craft and we decided to start the business. He was going to transfer everything in my name when he came down,” the woman said.

When it was pointed out to her that she had already started as the business was registered in  her name she said her boss “was going to transfer all the agents from Japan and so on to me.”

“I know to my heart that this only happened because of the story in the papers, I have a legitimate business,” the woman said.

“Now my life, the lives of my children and my staff are being threatened,” she said adding that her business was closed on Wednesday and yesterday because one of the girls was physically assaulted and the Alberttown Police Station is now investigating the matter.

“I am scared and ashamed to go to the office,” she said.

“I am doing something legitimate, I am not going to disappear or close down, A&J will continue,” she stressed.