Durban businessman Visham Panday has been successful in his application for leave to appeal his fraud conviction.
|||Durban - Durban businessman Visham Panday has been successful in his application for leave to appeal his fraud conviction.
Durban Commercial Crime Court acting magistrate Melvin Govender, who sentenced Panday to an effective three-year jail term after convicting him on three counts of fraud in January, on Friday said that the application, posted by Panday’s advocate, Jimmy Howse, was based on a “narrow issue”, but found that another court could reach a different verdict.
Last month Howse argued that the version given by the complainant, Gladys Egling, was “ridiculously improbable”.
He submitted that if Egling had given the money for any illegal purpose in order to get into the US, she would not have told the police.
Howse also said that Panday’s use of another name had no bearing on the case.
He said Govender had misdirected himself by accepting Egling’s version.
Govender said the court had rejected Panday’s version because it did not meet the test of being reasonably true.
The court had found that Panday had posed as Dr Calvin Naidoo and swindled Gladys Egling out of R485 000 by claiming he could help her emigrate to the US.
Egling, who was employed as a legal secretary for attorneys Woodroff and Kleyn at the time, had deposited the money into an Absa account on the understanding that Panday would arrange a US green card, visa and social security number for her.
She said he told her that he had business interests in the US and was looking to sponsor someone to work for him at one of his bed and breakfasts.
The account was that of Panday’s former common-law wife.
Panday had argued that the money was a bribe for Egling to obtain a visa. Egling had said the money was to show her credit worthiness to the company that was to employ her in the US.
In her response, prosecutor Ashika Haripersad said on Friday that the application was “erroneous and speculative”.
She said the false motive on behalf of Egling to mislead the police was not established in the evidence.
The court correctly found that it did not make sense that Egling would use a “middle man” to further an illegal activity, she said.
Haripersad said it was not common cause that Egling was unable to re-enter the US.
Govender said he took into account the manner in which the evidence was presented before he granted the application.
rizwana.umar@inl.co.za
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