Cape Town - A Ruyterwacht woman, who is fighting for her son after he was sentenced to 12 years in jail for stealing a cellphone, has now set her sights on the Supreme Court of Appeal.
But Firdous Adams says she is out of pocket because she has already had to pay his previous attorney R17 000.
To make matters worse, the attorney has all the documents she needs to take the case further and hasn't answered any of her calls.
Read: ‘12 years very harsh for stealing a phone’
Adams made headlines in August when the Cape Argus reported that the Parow Regional Court had sentenced her son, Niyaad Adams, to 12 years behind bars for robbing an 18-year-old of his cellphone.
Her son, who was 19 at the time, was charged with aggravated robbery rather than theft because the 18-year-old, Eric Smith, alleged that Adams had pressed a gun to his stomach during the incident in September 2014.
The phone was recovered within a few hours. Police did not find a gun during a search and the only evidence which the State produced to prove a gun was used was Smith's testimony.
The magistrate accepted that Adams had been armed and convicted him of aggravated robbery.
However, Adams appealed to the Western Cape High Court.
His mother said on Thursday that someone at a drug rehabilitation centre her son had attended recommended an attorney who she met in the parking lot of Vangate Mall where he told her she would have to pay R17 000.
He agreed to let her pay it off in instalments but she never received a receipt.
The attorney took the appeal to the High Court in August but the case was dismissed and Adams was left to read the outcome in the paper.
The Cape Argus contacted the attorney on Thursday, who confirmed he had accepted money from Adams in the mall parking area as she wanted to meet there.
He ended the call before any further questions could be put to him and immediately sent a text message to Adams to say she should just phone him if she needed to know anything.
Attorney William Booth, who chairs the criminal committee of the Cape Law Society, described the attorney's conduct as unprofessional.
"What is peculiar are these meetings in a car park," he said.
Booth said that in terms of the Attorneys Act, a statement of account should be provided to the client detailing all work done. Adams plans to take the issue to the Law Society.
Cape Argus