A “fake quadriplegic” accused of defrauding the Road Accident Fund of millions of rand appeared briefly before the Durban Specialised Commercial Crime Court yesterday.
Mohamed Ebrahim, 56, was expected to apply for bail but his case was postponed to later this week.
The directorate for priority crime investigation (Hawks) arrested Ebrahim earlier this month.
Ebrahim stands accused of feigning injuries, as a result of an accident the state alleges he was not even involved in, to claim millions of rand from the RAF. According to court records, a Durban High Court judge in 2010 ordered the RAF to compensate Ebrahim for injuries he suffered as a result of a 2002 accident.
Some of the claims made included that he was left paralysed from the neck down, was unable to do anything for himself and needed adult diapers.
The RAF footed the bill for modifications to Ebrahim’s house and car. However, the state alleged that Ebrahim has a regular driver's licence and was arrested while driving an unmodified car, that he gambles and uses public toilets.
"Whenever the RAF goes to check on the accused, he refuses as they are ‘disturbing him'," public prosecutor, Nolwazi Letsholo, told the court.
The State alleged Ebrahim, who said he was a passenger and his son driving at the time of the accident, was not even in the car and he defrauded the RAF out of R6million.
Ebrahim’s lawyer, Agzar Khan, disputed the state's claims as being untrue.
Khan told the court the RAF settled a claim for R1.6 million and undertook to compensate Ebrahim for future medical expenses.
Khan said he did not know why his client was now charged. He says the high court ruling came after a three-day-long trial and if the RAF felt aggrieved, it should have applied for leave to appeal.
Khan said his client was assessed by 20 doctors - 10 appointed by his lawyers and 10 by the RAF - who were specialists in their fields.