‘Bogus lawyer’ in the dock

AN ALLEGED bogus lawyer who spun legal analysis for news organisations for years is to be prosecuted for fraud involving more than R500 000. Brenda Wardle was denied bail in the Port Elizabeth Commercial Crime Court on Monday. The so-called legal analyst and author Wardle, 56, was arrested in East London last month after evading court for more than a year. She shot to fame when she provided international legal analysis on the murder trial of Paralympian Oscar Pistorius. She also appeared on the SABC and BBC TV, providing legal analysis to viewers. On her Facebook profile, she boasts that she wrote a number of books on court cases, which included British businessman Shrien Dewani, the legal trials and tribulations of President Jacob Zuma, the State verses Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir and a book on the State’s case against Pistorius. The State claims that in 2009 and 2013, Wardle was paid R538 766 to assist Stephanus van Aardt for his early release on parole. The State alleges that Wardle pretended to be an attorney, but could not bring an application for Van Aardt’s early release. Van Aardt, a dairy farmer in Somerset East, Eastern Cape, was also not eligible for parole. In 2007, Van Aardt was convicted of murder and sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment for the assault and death of 15-year-old Eliot Magabane in 2006. The case against Wardle was postponed to July 27. – ANA