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Visham Panday
Convicted fraudster Visham Panday will remain behind bars until his trial begins on Friday.
The 32-year-old, who was convicted on 45 counts of fraud in March last year, was denied bail in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Friday after Magistrate Gert Botha said Panday had continuously flouted the law.
His trial will take place at the Durban Commercial Crimes Court. Botha said he believed the State had a reasonable chance of success in a criminal trial against Panday.
“The accused has a poor history of attending court. He has only himself to blame for the fact that the State is now opposing bail.”
Panday applied for bail after he was arrested on charges of fraud in December, for allegedly posing as a doctor and swindling a Durban woman out of her life savings of R450 000.
He first appeared in the Durban Magistrate’s Court in December and was granted bail of R25 000, but this was forfeited to the State after he failed to appear in court in February.
On Friday, Panday’s advocate, Fanie Slabbert, said the State’s case against Panday was weak.
But prosecutor Siyabonga Majola said Panday’s past conduct spoke “volumes” of what he would do in the future, adding that Panday’s girlfriend, Vanishree Naidoo, would be a witness in the trial.
Panday was arrested in July on a warrant for allegedly assaulting Naidoo.
“He assaulted [Naidoo] when he did not know that she would be a witness, so now that she is a witness, there is no reason why he would not interfere with her again,” Majola said.
“He does not take this matter seriously,” he said.
laea.medley@inl.co.za
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