Plea for Clifton petrol bomber

2012-05-18 20:41

Cape Town - Australian chartered accountant Shumsheer Singh Ghumman's sentence should enable him to rebuild his life, the Cape Town Regional Court heard on Friday.

Senior counsel for the defence, Francois van Zyl, reminded the court that Ghumman had already spent 14 months in jail, and urged the court to take this into account when passing sentence.

Ghumman is to be sentenced on May 31 for the petrol-bombing of businessman Philip Rhind's Clifton home.

The action was part of Ghumman's scheme to kill Rhind, the father of Hannah, a woman who spurned him.

Van Zyl said Ghumman had been diagnosed at an early age with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which had played a major role in the whole saga.

He said Ghumman needed therapy, and that a prison environment would not be conducive to treatment.

The fraud conviction would lead to the removal of Ghumman’s name from the roll of chartered accountants, which meant that he would have to start life afresh in a different direction, said van Zyl.

He said Ghumman would be deported from South Africa upon his release from prison, and would not be allowed back.

- SAPA