A Mthatha lawyer accused of pocketing R433,000 from a client's Road Accident Fund (RAF) payout is expected to appear in court next month following a lengthy Hawks investigation into a claim dating back nearly 20 years.
The 56-year-old director of a law firm was served with summons on Thursday to appear in the Mthatha Specialised Commercial Crime Court on November 9.
Hawks spokesperson Warrant Officer Ndiphiwe Mhlakuvana said the case arose from a road accident in the Bityi area in 2005, in which a man from the Zimbana Administrative Area near Mthatha suffered serious injuries to his right leg.
The man approached the lawyer in November 2006 for assistance in claiming compensation from the RAF and signed a contingency-fee agreement with the firm.
Several years later, the lawyer allegedly paid the client R235,000 in cheques, telling him that the RAF had settled his claim for R350,000 and that R110,000 had been deducted for legal fees.
However, the client became suspicious and approached the RAF directly to establish how much had been paid.
"The investigation allegedly established that the RAF had paid more than R900,000 in respect of the claim, raising suspicions that a portion of the funds had been unlawfully appropriated for the suspect's benefit," Mhlakuvana said.
The matter was referred to the Hawks, whose Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team subsequently investigated the alleged misappropriation of trust funds.
The lawyer has not yet appeared in court.
The case follows the recent arrest of another attorney, Precious Muleya, who is accused of submitting fraudulent RAF claims valued at about R5.2m.
Muleya, a Zimbabwean national, was arrested at OR Tambo International Airport on September 30 after allegedly evading arrest.
She initially appeared in the Kempton Park Magistrate's Court before the matter was transferred to the Eastern Cape.
The state is opposing her release on bail in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in KuGompo City.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Luxolo Tyali said Muleya faced a charge of fraud, alternatively theft, involving claims allegedly submitted on behalf of at least 12 beneficiaries.
At the time of the alleged offences, she was an admitted attorney practising under the name Precious Muleya Attorneys.
The claims involved accident victims from KuGompo City, Centane, Butterworth, KwaBhaca, Mdantsane and Estcourt in KwaZulu-Natal.
"Investigations conducted by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) revealed that between 29 August 2019 and 19 February 2021, the RAF allegedly paid amounts ranging from R150 000 to R947 000 based on false information submitted to inflate the value of claims," Tyali said.
Investigators also found that several claimants had allegedly never been examined or treated by the medical practitioners whose reports and invoices were submitted to support their claims.
"These reports and invoices are alleged to have been forged and used to induce the RAF to make payments to which the claimants were not entitled," Tyali said.
Meanwhile, the trial of another attorney, Manfred Chinamasa, accused of misappropriating millions of rand paid by the RAF into his law firm's trust account on behalf of accident victims, is nearing completion in the same court.