Le Roux: No minimum sentence

2008-10-27 16:02

Cape Town - Minimum sentencing legislation does not apply to former Springbok cricketer Garth le Roux and his accountant Deon van Heerden, a Wynberg magistrate ruled on Monday.

Le Roux and Van Heerden were convicted in August on a string of tax fraud charges involving estate agent commissions totalling just under R2m.

When sentencing procedures got under way on Monday, prosecutor Bronwen Hendry argued that the minimum sentencing law should apply.

It lays down a minimum sentence of 15 years' jail for fraud involving over R500 000 unless there are "substantial and compelling" reasons for a lesser sentence.

However, advocate Wim Trengove, for Le Roux, argued that Hendry was making a "haphazard and opportunistic" attempt to apply the act in the wake of the conviction.

He said the amount to be considered when weighing up whether an offence fell in the ambit of the law was the amount that "measures the seriousness of the crime".

In Le Roux's case, the court should look not at the amount of the undeclared commissions, but at the amount of tax that should have been paid on them.

Magistrate Jackie Redelingshuys said that though most of the fellow magistrates with whom he had discussed the issue, disagreed with him, he was ruling that the legislation was not applicable in this case.

- SAPA