Durban - A major medical aid fraud trial is going nowhere with the two 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 - who were initially charged with 12 correctional supervision officials who have 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 he required 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 The Mercury he believed the ruling was “correct” because of problems when forcing people to represent themselves, particularly in complex commercial matters.
But in response to questions from The Mercury, 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, but the magistrate was granting unnecessary adjournments for “the same old reasons”.
“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 of medical practitioners 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 then 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 members of the Department of Correctional Services who belonged to Medcor, and lodged false claims.
The charge sheet details dozens of adjournments before different magistrates, with different prosecutors and defence lawyers.
At least twice the matter had been set down for trial, and at least three times magistrates deemed the adjournments to be “final”.
Many adjournments had been granted for the two accused to obtain legal representation. Soobramoney complained of having no funds (because his assets had been seized by the Asset Forfeiture Unit) and there had been delays because, he said, he wanted to approach the Durban High Court to get some money back.
But two years later, in 2008, when challenged by the public prosecutor to prove that the court application had been made, his attorney conceded it had not, “because of lack of funds”.
In 2009 they applied for legal aid and an “in-house counsel” was appointed to represent them both.
Soobramoney said he wanted legal aid to pay his own private attorney, which was turned down.
Then he said he could not share an attorney with Pillay because of a “conflict of interest”. Another attorney was appointed for him but later withdrew.
Soobramoney then obtained the services of private attorney Ricky Ramouthar.
At their appearance in May 2013, magistrate Mohamed noted on the charge sheet that Legal Aid would now no longer represent Pillay “because 11 years have been spent on this case”.
In August last year, the matter was finally set down for trial, to begin this week
.
Approached by The Mercury on Tuesday, Ramouthar declined to comment.
The Mercury