Pretoria - A former packing manager at SA Breweries in Rosslyn was successful in getting the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, to force the police to remove his name from the criminal register
He thought he had paid an admission of guilt fine for speeding, but it was recorded that he had admitted to reckless and negligent driving.
Cornelius Hatting said in papers before the court that he had no idea that the document he had signed in 2017 was an admission to have committed a criminal deed.
He only realised he had a criminal record about a year later when a friend at his church cell group did a background check on him at his request, and told him it was recorded that he had a conviction and thus a police record.
Hatting explained to the court that he had signed the documents at the Pretoria North Magistrate’s Court as he wanted the entire “drama to be over”. Little did he know he was agreeing to a charge of reckless and negligent driving.
Hatting’s nightmare began on November 2016 shortly after he left his place of work in Rosslyn. He was on his way home in Pretoria East.
He said he was under a lot of stress at the time as he was investigating some irregularities at work. According to him, he received threats from the people he was investigating and things became so bad that his work had arranged a bodyguard to accompany him wherever he went.
On the day, however, his car broke down. He drove home with a car on loan from a garage. His bodyguard was not with him.
On his way home he noticed that he was being followed by an unmarked VW vehicle with tinted windows.
Hatting said he was terrified and he drove faster as he wanted to get away from this car. When the driver of the unmarked car tried to pull him off the road, he drove even faster to get away from the “danger”.
“I perceived it to be an emergency situation. It later turned out to be an unmarked vehicle from the Provincial Traffic Police.”
He was arrested and taken to the Sinoville police station, where he was granted bail.
He later attended his court case, where he said he was advised to pay an admission of guilt fine on his second appearance.
“At the time I did not know I had a defence in law (for speeding) and I did not understand the consequences of an admission of guilt I just wanted it all over.”
He was later told by his attorney that an admission of guilt fine must first be confirmed by a magistrate in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Act before it had the same status as a conviction.
In this case the admission of guilt was not confirmed by a magistrate and the admission of guilt fine - R1500 - was paid back to him.
Judge Dawie Fourie ordered the police to remove Hatting’s name from the system.