Ranch owner wins case

2003-08-07 15:41

Johannesburg - Andrew Phillips, owner of the upmarket erotic club The Ranch, won a defamation case against a member of the Asset Forfeiture Unit in the Johannesburg High Court on Thursday.

Phillips said that when the Asset Forfeiture Unit applied to a judge in chambers for an order allowing them to attach assets, George Hardacre had made defamatory allegations about Phillips and illegal drugs.

The high court has ordered Hardacre to pay Phillips R30 000 in damages plus the costs of the action, which with two counsel could be a further R120 000, Phillips said. The order is against Hardacre personally, and not against the National Prosecuting Authority, under which the Asset Forfeiture unit falls.

Phillips said that the legal process had been abused.

When The Ranch was raided in February 2000 a number of Ranch employees were arrested and told they would not be released until they had made statements implicating Phillips in the trafficking of women and girls and the drug trade.

'Runing a brothel'

These statement were later retracted when the women were released.

Phillips said the litigation against him had "for the last three-and-a-half years been robbing me of my life".

He said the curator appointed to look after his property while the criminal case against him was pending had failed to maintain his property.

The National Prosecuting Authority could not be immediately reached for comment on Thursday.

Phillips will go on trial in the Johannesburg Regional Court on Monday on charges of running a brothel and living of the proceeds of prostitution. He appeared briefly in court on Wednesday for the case, which had been set down for five days, but the magistrate was ill.

- SAPA