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Court Correspondent
The trial of Michael Gordon Smith (also known as Mike Smith), who is facing a litany of fraud charges involving at least US$38 000 and R124 000 will resume on January 15, 2024.
This was after the defence counsel requested that the documents carrying the evidence be paginated before official acknowledgement of receipt.
Presiding magistrate Mrs Munashe Chibanda warned the accused against wasting the court’s time by asking the State on flimsy grounds, for more time to prepare his defence.
The magistrate threw out the defence’s application on the basis that pagination was not a requirement at law in criminal cases.
Smith will now be tried on 38 counts of defrauding MA Auto Suppliers, trading as Mr Cruiser, of at least US$38 000 and R124 000. He is also facing theft of trust property charges.
In his initial court appearance in February this year, Smith was facing 16 counts of fraud before 22 more were added to the charge sheet.
He is out on $100 000 bail.
MA Auto Suppliers is represented by Michael Scot Asher, who is the complainant in the case.
The offences were allegedly committed while Asher was away in Australia during the Covid-19 era when travelling was restricted.
Smith allegedly failed to disclose to Asher that their company was paying its South African suppliers through a third party, Mant Procurement (Pvt) Ltd which was overcharging MA Auto Suppliers leading to the prejudice of over R100 000.
Additionally, Smith is expected to defend himself for failing to account for US$28 985,72 in service charges received from relatives and friends after using the company’s resources.
It is the State’s case that in September last year, MA Auto Suppliers discovered that Mant Procurement was overcharging the company resulting in it suffering prejudice in excess of R100 000.
Among a host of other fraudulent actions, Smith was on one occasion authorised by Asher to sell a Company Toyota Land Cruiser for US$7 500 and he converted the amount to his own use.
Smith also allegedly failed to account for a US$10 000 loan advanced to the company.
Key evidence was extracted from several electronic devices by the Police Cyber Lab and should prove key to the case.
Should all charges against the accused be proven in court, he is likely to face a lengthy jail sentence.
Online Reporter