Home News ‘She had been playing a game of cat and mouse with the police’

‘She had been playing a game of cat and mouse with the police’

by Salaamedia

By Mohammed Arai

The accused had been hiding under a blanket when the police went to her house to arrest her. She had been playing a game of cat and mouse with the police, the State Prosecutor told the Court.

The Lenasia Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday refused to join the several charges against Fazila Khan-Seedat, the alleged defrauder from New Heights Travel & Tours, as one charge. The attorney for the defence, Bhamjee, had on Monday argued that all the charges against the accused should be joined as one charge since the cause of action is one, and the alleged incident of fraud by the complainants in the matter is one incident. Bhamjee was referring to the Umrah package advertisement of September last year which gave rise to complaints against the accused.

“Section 81(1) [of the Criminal Procedure Act] states that joinder of charges can take place before evidence has been led in court. In this instance, evidence has already been led through the production of affidavits in Court by the accused. Therefore, it would be imprudent for me to make such a joinder, and I would be interfering with settled law if I allow it,” the Magistrate told Bhamjee.

Bhamjee had previously argued that section 81(1) of the Criminal Procedure Act refers to trials, and “a bail hearing is not a trial”. Bail hearings are regarded as pre-trial proceedings. The Magistrate, however, stated that although bail applications are not trials per se, they (bail applications) “follow the conduct of trials for the most part”. In averring this, the Magistrate agreed with the State Prosecutor who, on Monday, had argued that according to section 81 of the Criminal Procedure Act, joining charges as one during the trial would amount to an irregularity.

The bail application

The State Prosecutor read out affidavits deposed to by investigating officers in opposing the bail application.

He read: “The accused threatened the complainants that they would not get back their money should they lay a [criminal] complaint against her. The accused is flight risk and it took us five months to trace and arrest her. She was aware of the allegations against her, yet she did not come to the police station.”

The State Prosecutor further argued that the accused makes mention in her affidavit that she will pay back the money owed to the complainants, but she does not make mention of how she will pay back the money.

“Your Worship, the accused was hiding under a blanket when the police went to her house to arrest her. She had been playing a game of cat and mouse with the police. Why was she hiding from the police when she had no intention to hide from the law?” the State Prosecutor told the Court.

Bhamjee refuted that the accused is a flight risk. “The investigating officer makes a bold allegation that she is a flight risk, but he doesn’t prove how. He states that the accused has three passports, but how many times has the accused actually flown out of the country?”

“The State gives the impression that she is a scam artist who continuously scams people. This is not the case, and this will be elaborated during the trial,” said Bhamjee.

The reason why the Umrah trips did not materialise in September last year and the complainants did not get their refunds – according to Bhamjee – was because of administrative issues in Saudi Arabia.

The Court remanded the accused in custody without bail at the hospital section of the Johannesburg Correctional Centre, commonly known as Sun City Prison. The matter has been postponed to 29 April 2020 for judgement in the bail application. However, the accused is due to appear in Court 3 of the Lenasia Magistrate’s Court tomorrow for other charges against her. The attorney for the defence will be Mr. S. Ebrahim.

Meanwhile, Lenasia SAPS spokesperson, Captain Hector Netshivhodza, confirmed to Salaamedia that the accused’s son, Muhammad Khan, had been arrested on Wednesday evening. He is due to appear in court tomorrow.

Featured image via FreePik.

Related Videos