Prosecutors welcome sentence

2003-11-03 19:31

Cape Town - The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on Monday welcomed the sentencing of former attorney Hoosain Mohamed, saying law enforcement agencies would deal "mercilessly" with greedy individuals.

Mohamed was jailed for an effective six years in terms of the new plea-bargain system for the theft of Road Accident Fund payouts amounting to R6 786 055.

Makhosini Nkosi of the NPA said: "The NPA is very pleased with this outcome... law-enforcement agencies will deal mercilessly with greedy individuals who steal money from poor and helpless people

Nkosi said that Mohamed was investigated by the Scorpions after allegations of fraud and theft of funds.

He was arrested on June 27 2001 and had R7m worth of assets seized by the asset forfeiture unit and placed under curatorship.

A further R5.5m in foreign bank accounts was also uncovered.

Earlier in the Cape High Court on Monday, Mohamed appeared before Judge Joe van der Westhuizen, who sentenced him to 10 years' imprisonment, but conditionally suspended four for five years.

227 would be fully compensated

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" the victims would recover their losses in full.

Sentence 'fair and equitable'

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 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 Ben Avenant and Hermione Cronjé and defence counsel William King agreed the victims were more concerned about compensation than about Mohamed going to jail.

- SAPA