Baiden to apply for bail next week

One of the city’s most wanted suspects currently being detained, Baiden Scheepers is expected to apply for bail next week after the court pronounced that he would not be sent for rehab to address his alleged drug addiction.
Scheepers appeared in the Polokwane Magistrate’s Court on Friday on charges of possession of housebreaking equipment after which the case was postponed to Wednesday.
During proceedings presiding officer Janine Ungerer inquired as to what the state’s decision was on sending Scheepers for rehab. The state prosecutor indicated that the control prosecutor had decided not to send him for rehab and that he could continue with his bail application. Ungerer requested an affidavit from the control prosecutor on his decision.
Scheepers also asked why a social worker had not visited him yet to which Ungerer replied that the state had made the decision not to send him for rehab.
Meanwhile, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has requested a report from the prosecutor on why Scheepers and his accomplice Lourellee Huang, both facing charges of possession of suspected stolen property and housebreaking equipment, were recently released on R500 bail.
NPA Limpopo Spokesperson Mashudu Malabi-Dzhangi’s verbatim response was: “From the reading of the report it appears that the accused’s cases were consolidated into one case. In his bail application the accused disclosed another pending case. However, he had no previous convictions. In this bail application his address was confirmed and he was not a flight risk. The court regarded the presence of this pending case as insufficient to establish a pattern that the accused is prone to committing crime.”
Scheepers was rearrested along Grobler Street for being in possession of suspected housebreaking equipment about two weeks after he and Huang were released on R500 bail on 6 September.
Scheepers also faces a pending case of theft of a motor vehicle in Westenburg. Both these cases will be heard again on 28 October.

Story: RC Myburgh
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