De Lille’s accuser has own skeletons
THE Gauteng businessman who claimed Mayor Patricia de Lille had attempted to solicit a multimillion-rand bribe from him was struck off the roll of attorneys following a probe in 1998.
Anthony Faul made headlines last month after he claimed De Lille had sought about R5 million in exchange for her endorsement of his venture to provide fire extinguishers to informal settlements in Cape Town. He provided an affidavit to the DA.
The alleged bribery incident, which De Lille had dismissed as yet another attempt to smear her, happened almost five years ago.
The Cape Times has since established that Faul was struck off the roll of attorneys on September 17, 1998, in terms of an order granted by the High Court in Pretoria.
Yesterday, the Law Society of the Northern Provincescould not provide reasons why Faul was struck off the roll, saying those details were in a court file.
Approached for comment yesterday, Faul said: “Let me put it to you that although I was struck off the roll… that was due to the advocate that did not understand the procedures properly. Secondly, I was never charged by the Law Society.
“I was never charged with any criminal act. There were never shortages (of money) in the trust account at all; in fact at the time I sold my practice I was still practising and after I had sold my practice, I was then removed off the roll.”
Faul said he was in the process of being readmitted
and his attorneys were dealing with that matter.
Asked what the issue was with the advocate he cited as the reason he was struck off the roll, Faul said: “The programme that I used from the practice that I bought, doing the books, had a double-booking system and the system that I bought was never updated at all.
“I used the hand system which worked perfectly and he then raised the aspect of the hand system… because on the hand system, there were never any shortages, not at all.
“In fact if there were any shortages, it could have happened after I had sold the practice to another guy named ‘Jimmy’.
“He practised for three months and it was only after that they brought an application against me,” Faul said.
“I furthermore did not have all the money to contest this matter because I had sold my practice and I did not have enough finances to proceed.”
Asked why it had taken him so long to act against the order, he said he had never “needed it” and decided go into corporate business where he worked as a legal adviser for various organisations.
“I am not ashamed of anything. I went out clean. They decided to go against me for whatever reasons. I tried to oppose it and unfortunately my advocate did not do a proper job and I did not have the money to take it further,” said Faul.
He said he would not comment further on the affidavit he made to the DA regarding the alleged bribe.
He said law enforcement agencies investigating the matter were communicating with him.