Durban - After a 16-year wait, a Durban man is overjoyed that his former best friend was finally convicted this week of stealing.
Garth O’Connor’s “long and painful” wait ended on Thursday after Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Esther Steyn ruled that the disbarred attorney, Ian Stokes, was guilty of “theft by general deficiency”.
Stokes was convicted of misappropriating R5.7 million that was kept in a trust fund he controlled.
O’Connor, who was in the business of inventing medical equipment, said he and Stokes were bosom buddies, played golf regularly, went on holidays together, and was the best man at the attorney’s wedding.
But he was devastated when he learnt that Stokes had misappropriated more than R3m, which was kept “in trust” by the attorney, related to the Jet Therapy franchises belonging to O’Connor.
Stokes fled the country in November 2000 and left a long trail of investors and businessmen, like O’Connor, high and dry.
The attorney’s wife Carla was pregnant at the time.
Investigators and media reports suggested Stokes had fled with between R19m and R30m, which also included money from a separate Road Accident Fund claims business he ran.
However, Interpol tracked him to Atlanta in the US and he was extradited in March, 2004.
The matter was eventually set down for trial in 2014, not before some of the initial charges brought against Stokes, by the State, were whittled down.
In 2007, Stokes’s legal team were successful in getting two standing fraud charges, involving R9m, dropped, because they had not been lodged at the time of the attorney’s extradition.
O’Connor said the prolonged and meandering course of justice weighed heavily on him and his family, and five people who had an interest in the trial, which included his wife, Lee, and her father, Rudi Erasmus, both of whom died before the trial’s completion.
“My wife was deeply troubled by what Stokes had done. Her dying words to me were I should not let him get away with it.
“I made a vow to her on her death-bed that I would make sure justice would be served on him, because I believed what Stokes did to us, put Lee in her grave,” O’Connor claimed.
Lee was a diabetic and O’Connor created Jet Therapy, which is an air massage apparatus that stimulates blood circulation, especially for her.
She died eight years ago and was cremated, but O’Connor has kept her ashes on the mantlepiece in his home, since then.
Stokes was responsible for doing all the legal work for the franchising of Jet Therapy.
O’Connor said he was not willing to dispose of the ashes until Stokes was brought to book because of the trauma the attorney caused him and his family, and because he nearly crippled Jet Therapy.
O’Connor said he only realised that Stokes had misappropriated Jet Therapy trust funds after the attorney skipped the country, a day before he was required to take a lie detector test.
“I kept Lee’s ashes under duress, but now I will dispose of her ashes. I will bring my children, family and close friends together and we’ll probably do it in Johannesburg, where my two children live.
“The entire time, waiting for justice was horrible, I’m just glad it’s over.
“There were dozens of adjournments. My children not only had to handle the death of their mother and grandfather, but were also petrified that he (Stokes) was going to get away with what he had done.”
O’Connor also denied the allegations made by Stokes’s legal team that he threatened to harm the attorney, therefore, he fled. “That’s a lie, I never threatened Stokes.”
When Judge Steyn started to read her judgment, O’Connor said he had a good feeling.
“The way in which she started by saying Mr Stokes, you fled the country, leaving behind a heavily pregnant wife... purely on that utterance, I knew she knew what had happened.
“I was absolutely relaxed thereafter because what man would up and flee, leaving behind his wife who was expecting their first unborn child.
“What type of man does that?” O’Connor asked.
He said when Steyn completed her verdict, his sister Colleen, seated next to him, squeezed his leg in elation.
“That was a huge relief. I felt like a massive weight had been lifted.
“I want to thank Judge Steyn for the professional manner in which she handled this trial, the work done by the State prosecutor (advocate Andre Ludick) and the investigators.
“The decision re-affirmed my confidence in the justice system.”
However, O’Connor said he was incensed that Stokes showed no remorse after judgment was handed down.
Steyn ruled that Stokes’s bail conditions, which were made more stringent, be extended until sentencing, which has been set down for October.
Sunday Tribune