Fraud case against former magistrate struck off court roll
The case of fraud against a former magistrate was struck off the court roll last Friday.
MBOMBELA – According to the provincial National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesman, Monica Nyuswa, the matter against Magriet Botha (55) was struck off the roll because the amended charge sheet was not in court.
“The original draft of the charge sheet was in court, but her attorney stated that they had not received the final draft of the charges.”
Nyuswa confirmed Botha had been facing 71 counts of fraud to the amount of R4,6 million.
Botha, from Magriet Botha Attorneys, had been accused of faking garnishing orders to commit fraud.
She was arrested and first appeared in court on May 26, 2017.
State advocate Patrick Nkuna said Botha, as an attorney, had allegedly collected debts for Sijabulile Finance Corporation, a micro-loan business owned by Vincent Meiring. They had an oral agreement to share the money equally.
According to Nkuna, Botha approached Vincent’s wife, Marie with alleged samples of court stamps for Nelspruit, Barberton, KaBokweni and White River courts. She gave Marie the samples to be made at a stationery shop.
He said on the day when they had to be collected, the accused said she could not afford all of them and only requested the stamps from White River Magistrate’s Court to be delivered.
Nkuna claimed Botha prepared the administration papers and various court orders and instructed two of her staff members to forge the signatures of clients of the cash-loan company.
These ordered the clients’ salaries to be deducted and deposited directly into Botha’s trust account. None of the money was alleged to have ever been paid to the company.
Nyuswa concluded that the NPA was waiting for the director of public prosecution’s decision to take the matter back to court.
