Medical aid fraud accused set record with ‘most adjourned case’

DURBAN: A major medical aid fraud trial is stalled, with the accused, a disgraced Durban doctor and his common law wife, making their “record” 90th court appearance this week, with the matter still not set down for trial.

When Moonsamy Soobramoney and Maliga Pillay were arrested in 2002 on 78 000 fraud charges involving about R45 million, their case was said to be one of the biggest in South Africa in terms of the number of charges they faced.

It has now notched up another “first” as the most adjourned case, with the pair accused by prosecutors of “playing the system” for almost 13 years.

On Monday, when their two-week trial was to have begun, Soobramoney and Pillay – initially charged with 12 correctional supervision officials who all subsequently pleaded guilty – applied for another adjournment.

State advocate Khumbu Shazi opposed the application, saying the State was ready to proceed and 81 of the adjournments had been at the behest of the accused.

“Some of the witnesses have gone overseas. Some cannot be traced. The quality of the evidence is being destroyed,” she said.

But Soobramoney’s attorney, Ricky Ramouthar, argued that he had not received all the documents from the State. And Pillay did not have a lawyer.

After ruling that the delay had again been caused by the accused, Durban Regional Court magistrate Fariedha Mohamed granted the adjournment, telling them they had until next month to sort out their issues.

Another senior magistrate told Cape Times sister newspaper The Mercury he believed the ruling was “correct” because of problems when forcing people to represent themselves, particularly in complex commercial matters.

But a spokesman from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said the National Prosecuting Authority had done everything to get the case to trial.

The magistrate was granting unnecessary adjournments for “the same old reasons”, he said.

“Playing for time ended seven years ago. This is just ridiculous.”

Soobramoney, who lived in Umhlanga at the time of his arrest, was a medical doctor until 2000, when he was removed from the register for “rendering fees he was not entitled to”.

In the present matter, Soobramoney and Pillay are accused of obtaining details of medical practitioners, including their practice numbers, and changing their addresses and bank account details with the Representative Association of Medical Schemes to addresses and bank accounts controlled by themselves.

They then allegedly recruited medical aid members, in particular Department of Correctional Services members who belonged to Medcor, and lodged false claims.

Pair accused by prosecutors of ‘playing the system’ for almost 13 years