Lawman jailed for RAF theft

2003-11-03 14:56

Cape Town - Former attorney Hoosain Mohamed was on Monday effectively jailed for six years in terms of the new plea-bargain system for the theft of Road Accident Fund payouts amounting to about R6.8m.

He appeared in the Cape High court before judge Joe van der Westhuizen, who sentenced him to 10 years, but conditionally suspended four for five years.

Mohamed was a senior partner specialising in RAF claims in the now defunct law firm Mohamed and Associates.

The judge said he was "not pleased" that a case of this nature was before the court.

He told Mohamed: "An attorney is an officer of this court and as such should not conduct himself as you did."

The judge said the sentence was not particularly heavy considering the amount stolen, but he took comfort in the fact that the 227 victims would be fully compensated as part of the plea and sentence agreements.

In terms of the agreement, Mohamed has to pay to the state an amount of R8 597 950 from which the victims are to reimbursed.

The judge said there was a "real prospect" that the victims would recover their losses in full.

He said the value of the plea-bargain system was that without it the case would have dragged on for three to six months.

At the end of such a protracted trial, there would have been very little money left for compensation, the judge said.

He said he considered the sentence to be fair and equitable, and that attorney Michael Murphy, who had acted for the victims, had also expressed satisfaction with the outcome.

The prosecution team comprising advocates Ben Avenant and Hermione Cronje and defence counsel William King agreed that the victims were more concerned about compensation than Mohamed going to jail.

- SAPA