INLSA

Gary Porritt appears at the Johannesburg High Court in 2010. Picture: Simphiwe Mbokazi

Controversial Pietermaritizburg businessman and farmer Gary Porritt – arrested almost a decade ago in connection with more than 3 000 cases of fraud – is at the centre of a fresh legal wrangle involving more than 2 000 cattle and a proposed ski resort on the doorstep of the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg world heritage site.

The former Tigon chief executive, arrested in 2002 for his alleged involvement in swindling almost R160 million from pensioners and other unit trust investors, was famously granted free State legal aid three years ago after pleading poverty in the high court.

But the Supreme Court of Appeal revoked this after finding that Porritt and co-accused Susan Bennett had shown a “complete lack of candour” about their financial affairs and appeared to have spent R23m in legal costs to deliberately delay their fraud trial for as long as possible by using “every legal stratagem available” to them.

Judge Visvanathan Ponnan said company records indicated that Porritt was a director of at least 10 companies and had also admitted that he was a beneficiary of several trusts with “substantial assets”.

Porritt, who previously claimed to have no significant income, is now back in the spotlight after farmers in the Swartberg area apparently refused to allow him permission to drive almost 2 000 cattle through their land.

The cattle (said to be worth at least R12 000 each) are owned by the Snowdon Farm Trust, which helped to provide some of the legal costs to delay Porritt’s trial on 3 160 charges of fraud.

Snowdon trustees include his wife, Bernice, while the beneficiaries are the Porritts’ four children.

Snowdon is part of a “veritable web” of other trusts, which the Legal Aid Board believes may have been created to facilitate the disposal or concealment of assets.

Now it has emerged that while Porritt awaits trial for allegedly defrauding investors in the liquidated PSC Guaranteed Growth Fund, his family and other trustees have bought several new farms in the Swartberg area and are locked in a legal dispute with neighbouring farmers over plans to drive 1 700 cattle up to newly acquired Snowdon farms on the Lesotho border.

However, papers lodged in the Pietermaritzburg High Court suggest that Snowdon and the Porritts may have other motives in seeking access through neighbouring property as Snowdon was also hoping to develop a major ski resort and hotel next to the Lesotho border.

But this might not be possible unless they can gain access through the neighbouring farms.

Snowdon’s representatives said in court papers that there were originally plans to develop a 400-room hotel at Eagles Nest farm, along with snow-making machines to guarantee permanent snow for four months of the year.

The original plans had now changed to build the hotel and “substantial resort development” at another site nearby (on the border of the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg world heritage site).

“However, without road access for two-wheel-drive vehicles to the hotel site... nothing can happen – including the environmental impact and other studies.”

It was therefore essential for Snowdon’s rights to pass through two neighbouring farms to be established in court.

In the meantime, Snowdon is involved in a cattle-driving rumpus which came to a head late last year after Snowdon began negotiations to buy four new farms, in addition to at least seven other farms it owns in the Swartberg area.

Court papers lodged by Snowdon suggest that they were unable to access these new farms, except by driving the cattle through two farms owned by another farming syndicate.

The court papers indicate that Porritt tried without success to contact these farmers and on December 4, he and his son Murray and other representatives of Snowdon embarked on a mission to “reconnoitre” a cattle-driving route through the intervening farms.

According to the papers, Snowdon had sought legal opinion which confirmed their right to drive cattle through neighbouring properties.

However, the owners and representatives of the two intervening farms confronted Porritt and his party during their recce mission and threatened to charge them with trespassing.

Later, the Snowdon Trust went to the high court to seek an urgent order allowing access through the two farms so that 1 700 Snowdon cattle could join another 542 cattle grazing on the new Snowdon properties on the Lesotho border.

This case in the high court is due to continue later in February, but, in the interim, five members or employees of the farms Beaumont and Leyden are now facing criminal charges for allegedly blocking off a “public road” through their farms.

They face charges under the KZN Provincial Roads Act and are due to appear again in the Kokstad Magi-strate’s Court on Tuesday morning.

Their attorney Paul Firman, of Stowell and Co, said in court papers that there was no evidence to suggest the two farms had been used as an access road for the past 30 years.

“The suggestion that the route over our clients’ properties has been used to access Berridale (farm) is simply incorrect... The notion of driving cattle across our clients’ properties would be irresponsible from an environmental perspective as, aside from being steep, the area is environmentally sensitive... If your clients (Snowdon) wish to proceed with an attempt to obtain an order allowing access over our clients’ properties, there will be innumerable disputes of fact.” - The Mercury