Fraud accused ex-attorney to stand trial

Fraud accused former Bay attorney Shaun Masimla, who allegedly swindled his clients out of millions from the Road Accident Fund, will stand trial in the Gqeberha commercial crimes court on January 25.

Masimla, 51, who is represented by prominent Bay defence attorney Danie Gouws, had two cases of fraud against him, which were joined after the state requested the first case be withdrawn and added to his latest charge sheet.

Yesterday, senior state advocate Lise Keech made the request, saying the first case against Masimla had a long history of remands since he was initially arrested and charged in 2018.

Magistrate Lionel Lindoor granted the request and added the 2018 charge sheet as an exhibit to the fresh matter.

In the 2018 matter, Masimla allegedly paid out only R1.1m of a R3.5m payout from the RAF to his disabled client.

He was arrested in December 2017 and released on R2,000 bail at the time.

Masimla was rearrested in November and charged with fraud after he allegedly pocketed more than R500,000 paid by the RAF into his then business’s trust account.

The money was meant for a widow and her children after her husband was killed in a car accident in 2010.

It is alleged after the RAF paid R657,661 into Masimla’s trust account on January 10 2018, he paid his client R80,000 in two instalments but misappropriated the remaining money.

According to the charge sheet, by May 24 2018, only R660 was left of the RAF money meant for his client.

In 2019, the Legal Practice Council (LPC) Fidelity Fund paid out R542,669 to Masimla’s client “for the loss she and her children suffered at the hands of [Masimla]”.

He was granted R50,000 bail in the city’s magistrate’s court after spending more than a week in custody.

A practising attorney for almost two decades, Masimla was interdicted from practising in 2018 after the disabled man and his wife complained to the LPC that he had paid them out only a fraction of their R3.5m RAF award.

He was struck from the roll of attorneys in September 2021.

Yesterday, Masimla’s bail conditions were also altered by agreement with the state, and now he only needs to report to the Algoa Park police station every Monday and not twice a week as before.