SANDTON – The presiding officer in Mr Derek Poole’s fraud trial appears to be in no rush to try the accused, but seems to want to guarantee that he receives fair representation.
Poole reappeared in the Alexandra Magistrate’s Court in Wynberg on Tuesday. He received a further extension to raise funds for his legal representation, with eyewitnesses quoting the magistrate as saying, “take as long as you like”.
He was arrested in Durban in September for failing to attend scheduled court appearances in Gauteng while he had been out on bail.
During his previous appearance the magistrate was reported to have told Poole to choose how long he needed to raise funds to pay his lawyers, “How long do you want – a week, a year, 10 years, 20 years? Take your time as there is no further bail.”
Poole remains in custody in Johannesburg Central Prison. An eyewitness, one of the complainants, said the magistrate told her she had been sitting in the courtroom for too long and that the matter would be dealt with swiftly.
Closer to home Poole was also accused of fraud. In the Lowveld he also missed his previous two scheduled court dates in the Hazyview and Nelspruit magistrates’ courts.
In Hazyview he is accused of using a false proof of payment to defraud a tour company out of due payment for a safari. In Mbombela he is accused of defrauding his former business partner of about R150 000 and assaulting his former landlord with the intent to do grievous bodily harm. Poole is due in court on October 30.
