Sentencing proceedings are finally set to go ahead against a security company found guilty of 500 counts of VAT-related offences.
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Sentencing proceedings are finally set to go ahead against a security company that was found guilty of 500 counts of VAT-related offences and several fraud charges in the Cape Town Regional Court.
The company, Nonzukiso Security Services, was convicted in October 2012 after it pleaded guilty to the charges brought against it.
Aggrieved by the finding of the court, the company then alleged that it was forced to plead guilty by its Legal Aid lawyer and sought from the courts to change its guilty pleas to “not guilty” in terms of Section 113 of the Criminal Procedure Act.
The litigation had a protracted history, which included an application for an interdict against the sentencing proceedings to go ahead before a decision was made in respect of the plea to be changed.
Included in the litigation history, in 2018, the company also failed in its application for the matter to be reviewed by the Cape Town Regional Court, which refused its application to change its guilty pleas.
“They were duly represented by a lawyer of the Legal Aid Board, and on 26 September 2012, after the prosecutor put the charges to them, the applicants pleaded guilty to the charges. Their Section 112(2) statements were read into the record, they confirmed that they pleaded guilty freely and voluntarily and without undue influence.
“The State accepted the facts, and given the volume of charges, the Regional Magistrate prudently postponed the matter for judgment. On 22 October 2012, the Regional Magistrate delivered a judgment, satisfying herself that the applicants admitted the elements of the offences and the facts as alleged by the State and accordingly convicted the applicants of the charges.
“The matter was then postponed for sentencing proceedings, and several postponements later (for reasons not relevant to this application), the applicants alleged that their lawyer forced them to plead guilty to the charges,” the judgment read.
As a respondent in the matter, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) opposed the application brought by the company.
The current status of the criminal matter before the Cape Town Regional Court is that it is incomplete.
The DPP submitted that the application was brought in medias res, meaning “in the middle of things”, and argued that the review application was brought prematurely.
High Court Judge Mas-udah Pangarker agreed with the DPP’s argument and said no case for exceptional circumstances was made out which would warrant the high court’s interference mid-stream in the unconcluded proceedings of the Regional Court.
“In fact, it is not in dispute that on conclusion of sentencing proceedings in the Regional Court, the applicants would be entitled to appeal the conviction and sentence and any incorrect (if it were so) application of Section 113 of the Criminal Procedure Act, would by implication, come under scrutiny by the court on appeal,” said Pangarker.
Cape Argus