Roland Williams to learn fate on Friday
A MAGISTRATE has asked both the prosecutor and defence in the fraud trial of disgraced former metro spin doctor Roland Williams for reasons why he should not impose a term of direct imprisonment.
Williams – convicted earlier this year of defrauding his insurance company through a false car claim – will learn his fate on Friday.
During heads of argument ahead of sentencing yesterday, magistrate Lionel Lindoor was adamant that neither the state nor Williams’s defence, attorney Kuban Chetty, had provided specific reasons to the court why Williams should remain a free man.
Lindoor also wanted to know why Williams had not yet paid back the money he owed to the insurance company as he had undertaken to do.
“This sentencing is most difficult. I will need time to digest all the information [presented to the court],” Lindoor said.
After both parties closed their arguments, Lindoor said he had thought that prosecutor Theuns Goosen would suggest direct imprisonment.
Williams could face up to 15 years in jail should Lindoor find that he had not offered exceptional reasons for deviating from the prescribed sentence.
Williams, along with co-accused company Mango Moon Trading, trading as V&R Auto and represented by Renika Rungan, pleaded guilty to insurance fraud in the Port Elizabeth Specialised Commercial Crimes Court earlier this year.
The court found that Williams, along with Renika’s husband, Raven, had defrauded Santam Ltd with a combined insurance claim worth more than R115 000 in 2014.
Rungan was fatally wounded in a shooting a year later.
Williams had detailed in a statement to the court how he and Rungan – to whom he was indebted – deliberately caused extensive damage to his BMW after he had had engine problems with his car, so that he could put in a fraudulent claim to Santam.
Goosen told the court yesterday that as an experienced prosecutor, he found Williams’s case very difficult with regard to suggesting an appropriate sentence.
“[Williams] claimed to be remorseful but he did not testify, so how can we believe it?” he said.
Goosen told the court it was clear from Williams’s plea that he had taken part in actions leading to the fraudulent insurance claim.
A Correctional Services report submitted to the court said that Williams was the sole provider for his four children.
It suggested that Williams undergo treatment and workshops and that he was suitable for correctional supervision.
Chetty told the court that Williams was extremely remorseful and embarrassed by his actions and would pay back the money he had received from Santam.
But Lindoor asked why Williams had not yet paid the money back.
“If he had serious remorse, why did he not make arrangements [to pay back the money] yet,” he said.
Rungan’s widow Renika, representing V&R Auto, was fined R120 000, suspended for five years, and must pay back R19 404 – the fraudulent claim paid to V&R Auto for services rendered.