Cape Town – A prominent Western Cape businessman, Irshaad Laher, facing multiple charges that include fraud, racketeering, corruption and the theft of firearms and ammunition, is to make his final appearance in the Bellville District Court next month, when his case will be transferred to the Western Cape High Court.
He appeared in court on Tuesday, before magistrate Ronald Rickerts, who warned him to appear in the same court for the last time on November 2, when he will be informed of the date on which he has to attend his first pre-trial conference in the High Court.
At his previous appearance in July, he was in the dock with gun collector Allan Robert Raves, whose case has already been transferred to the High Court.
Raves’ first pre-trial conference in the High Court is scheduled for November 4.
The State was represented by advocates Shareen Riley and Christiaan de Jongh, both attached to the Western Cape Directorate for Public Prosecutions, who are to prosecute the two cases combined as one, in the high court.
Laher is out on R100 000 bail, and Raves on R20 000.
Raves recently appeared in the same court with former police colonel Christiaan Lodewyk Prinsloo, of Vereeniging, who was jailed for 18 years in plea bargain proceedings, on similar charges.
Raves faces 15 counts - racketeering, corruption, money laundering, three of theft, the unlawful sale or supply of firearms and ammunition, possession of prohibited firearms and ammunition, the illegal possession of firearm parts, erasing the serial number of a firearm, defacing marks on a SANDF firearm, the destruction of firearms without authority, damaging or destroying firearms and failure to keep a proper register of firearms.
Laher faces seven charges – racketeering, corruption, money laundering, the illegal sale of firearms and ammunition, theft, the possession of prohibited firearms, and the illegal possession of ammunition.
African News Agency