A Durban businesswoman accused of inflating invoices to cut her tax bill has the right to know more about the charges against her, her lawyer argued on Monday.
Wim Trengove SC, told the Durban Magistrate's Court his client Shauwn Mpisane would deny she was guilty of fraud.
She is accused of submitting revised financial statements to the SA Revenue Service (Sars) for her company, with inflated purchases that ultimately resulted in the company's profit being understated in 2008.
According to the State, Zikhulise Cleaning, Maintenance, and Transport CC's bookkeeper Kishal Reddy forged four invoices in the amount of R5,053,035.
This was allegedly done on the instructions of Mpisane.
Trengove said the State needed to provide Mpisane with evidence of her “complicity”.
“There is little doubt that (the forging of invoices) was all Mr Reddy's work. She will deny she had any complicity,” said Trengove.
He said Mpisane was “entitled to know what it is that she did in perpetrating the fraud”.
The State claimed Mpisane had got others to commit the criminal offences of which she was accused.
However, the State had not revealed with whom or how she did this and when she did so, Trengove said.
He was arguing for an order to be made by the court to force the State to provide more details.
Mpisane is also alleged to have under or overstated the VAT returns by Zikhulise in 2010.
Among the people who packed the courtroom gallery on Monday was suspended national police commissioner Bheki Cele.
According to a Mercury newspaper report on May 30, Mpisane attracted Sars's attention when questions arose about how her husband, former eThekwini metro policeman S'bu Mpisane, was funding his plush house and many expensive cars.
The matter was postponed to Tuesday to allow the State to respond to the application. - Sapa