MARK Philip Andrews had planned to hand himself over to the police this week in connection with the disappearance and murder of former Teazers lawyer Ian Jordaan.
But on Tuesday, after speaking to a lawyer, the burly 36-year-old was kidnapped.
And fewer than 24 hours later, his body was found at the side of the R59, between the Kliprivier off-ramp and Vereeniging.
He had been shot in the back of the head, execution-style.
His hands were bound against the front of his body with cable ties. None of his personal belongings – including his cellphone – were stolen.
Two patrolling police officers found his body alongside the deserted road at about 3am yesterday. Now detectives are piecing together the puzzle of the last 12 hours of Andrews’s life.
They are tracking his phone records and speaking to those close to him.
Andrews’s murder comes eight days after the charred remains of a man believed to be Jordaan were found in a burnt, overturned car on Broederstroom Road in Hekpoort, west of Joburg.
Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said the only visible body part left in the car was a bare skull. Media reports have speculated that there were no teeth, making positive identification through dental records impossible.
Before he was murdered, Jordaan was forced to transfer R1.8 million from his account into an offshore account belonging to Andrews. The money was Teazers boss Lolly Jackson’s and held in trust as surety for a court case he had against Andrews. The money was deposited into Jordaan’s trust account some time before Jackson was murdered.
After Jackson’s death, Jordaan was apparently instructed by his widow, Demi Jackson, to keep the money until the strip king’s estate was settled, possibly as legal fees.
But sources close to the investigation say Andrews was only the middle man in the transaction Jordaan had made to an offshore Bidvest account in the hours before he died. The source was aware that police were following up leads that Andrews would not have received the entire amount.
He would have been given a small share for the use of his account. But the deal soured when Andrews, knowing the police were hot on his heels, decided to hand himself over, said the source.
The masterminds then kidnapped Andrews and shot him to avoid him identifying them.
Yesterday, Dlamini could not confirm that the two murders were linked. Jordaan’s murder is being investigated by the West Rand Organised Crime Unit, while Andrews’s murder is still with officers based at the Brackendowns police station.
Sources close to Andrews told The Star yesterday that he had relocated to Thailand last year, and returned to South Africa in March only to finalise a claim against Jackson’s estate. The Star understands the claim was linked to a court case that Andrews had won against Jackson.
The court had allegedly permitted him to sue Jackson for more than R2m in damages relating to their fallout around the Teazers Cresta branch. But the conclusion of that case was impossible to identify as all the court documents relating to it were removed from the Johannesburg High Court.
When The Star requested the court documentation, there was only a near-empty file. Inside it lay just three pages that said Jackson was deceased and “executors substitute themselves as defendants in the above action”.
The papers named the executors as Demi Megan Jackson, Samantha Leslie Jackson and Manoli George Jackson. Jordaan was the attorney who placed the three pages in the file.
Last week, Demi, speaking as an executor of the estate, said the case where Andrews was planning to sue Jackson was not concluded and the R1.8m was simply waiting in a trust account held by Jordaan.
But a former colleague of Jackson’s said Andrews had won the second part of the case and the money was meant to be part of Jackson’s estate. When the estate was wound up, Andrews would have had a claim to it.
Yesterday, Demi reiterated that the case was not concluded and she was not aware of any claim Andrews had to Jackson’s estate.
Who was Mark Andrews?
Mark Andrews, Lolly Jackson’s former partner in the Cresta branch of the Teazers strip club, was the prime suspect in the murder inquest into Jackson’s lawyer, Ian Jordaan, who vanished last week Tuesday.
In 2008, Andrews had been managing the Cresta branch of the Teazers strip club chain at Jackson’s behest.
It was a personal fallout that divided the pair.
In a founding affidavit submitted to the high court, Jackson spoke of how the pair would travel across Europe together recruiting strippers.
He even loaned a few cars from his legendary collection to Andrews, allowing him full access to his garage when he was “out of town”. a
But then Jackson discovered Andrews was romantically involved with a stripper called Micaela – which is strictly against company policy.
Jackson said he had earlier fired Micaela from a Cape Town branch after she had a relationship with a business partner and then his brother.
The relationship between Andrews and Jackson went beyond any hope of repair when Jackson was locked out of the club’s bank accounts and stopped receiving financial reports.
Andrews took full control and renamed Teazers “Decadence”, spawning the court battle because the Cresta club was registered under a company owned exclusively by Andrews, giving him full control of its finances.
In the Johannesburg High Court in October 2009, Jackson was granted full control of the club and Andrews and his staff were ordered to vacate the premises.
However, Andrews was given permission to sue Jackson for R2 345 243.
After the loss of his club, Andrews became a director for trade and investment company Idol Way, which was started in 2009. He was, however, already a part of several other businesses, including a branch of hardware chain Kings Paint, a property development company, a repossession firm and a firm named Coco Haven. - The Star