Cars have been costly curse for Tony
TONY Yengeni has driven a fleet of luxury cars over the years but the ride has often been a bumpy one.
Besides brushes with traffic police over unpaid fines and minor and serious offences, he has had several expensive fender-benders.
Here is a brief history of some cars that drew attention to the ANC heavyweight over the past 15 years, for all the wrong reasons:
1998: Yengeni registers a Mercedes Benz ML320 in his name, with the help of a 47% discount provided by a company linked to the country’s controversial arms deal. The green SUV 4x4 led to his fraud conviction and four-year jail sentence — of which he served five months.
November 2001: While facing the fraud trial he trades in the ML320 on a demo model red Volvo C70 convertible costing R330 000.
2003: Brett Kebble offers to buy Yengeni a new car, the Volvo is traded in and he gets a top-of-the-range Land Rover bought and financed by Friedshelf 350 (Pty) Ltd. JCI Limited was the sole shareholder of Friedshelf.
October 2005: Cape Town newspapers report a blue Maserati allegedly driven by “TS Yengeni” crashed into a Mercedes-Benz in the city.
November 25 2007: Yengeni drives a BMW M5 on to a traffic island in Goodwood, Cape Town, and is arrested for alleged drunken driving while on parole in the fraud case. He is acquitted thanks to a police cover-up that saw Goodwood station commander Siphiwo Hewana convict- ed of defeating the ends of justice because evidence and the blood sample were tampered with.
August 22 2010: Yengeni has an accident in a Maserati GranTurismo on a freeway in Cape Town.
City Press reported that Santam insurance company paid out a claim for R1.3-million after the accident.
The newspaper revealed several other insurance claims paid out that year for damage to a Volkswagen Eos, a BMW X5 and a BMW X6.
July 2012: Yengeni is caught driving a Maserati in Cape Town without a front number plate and a valid licence disc. He was fined R300 for not displaying the disc.
August 11 2013: Traffic police arrest Yengeni near Cubana restaurant in Green Point — where he often entertains friends — for alleged drunk driving in a Maserati. Unconfirmed reports claimed he was well over the limit.