Magistrate to face criminal charges

Police confirmed that a case of fraud and misrepresentation of forged documents, allegedly involving a local magistrate, is being investigated. The magistrate recently presided over the bail application in a murder case which has sent shockwaves through the city.
The magistrate, who cannot be named as he has not officially been charged nor appeared in court, was allegedly involved in the fraudulent undersigning of a last will and testament of a local businessman who died in July 2013.
A relative of the deceased who presented Polokwane Observer with documentation last week confirmed that the family has opened a case of fraud at the Polokwane Police Station after a handwriting expert in the South African Police Service classified the signature on the testament to have been forged and a High Court ordered that the testament be declared null and void. The magistrate was allegedly appointed in 2013 as executor of the will which named the deceased’s brother and sister as only beneficiaries.
Other family members disputed the validity of the testament and approached the courts demanding that it be declared null and void with costs to the respondents in the case.
The complainants also approached a handwriting expert who was furnished with a copy of the testament allegedly signed by the deceased on 29 June 2013 six days before his death. In his report the expert stated that he also received specimen signatures of the deceased from the family in the form of hospital receipts, a college registration contract, security job card, security agreement and bank documents originally signed by the deceased.
“The will contains two disputed signatures of the testator. The original will was examined by me on 27 September 2013. I was requested to examine the disputed signatures of the deceased on the will and compare it with the known specimen,” the report stated.
In the opinion of the handwriting expert and based on all the discovered factual physical evidence he reported: “I reached a qualified and conclusive opinion. The disputed signatures of the deceased on the will respectively were in fact not created (beyond any reasonable doubt) by the author of the specimen signatures and are therefore all classified as forgeries.”
After the matter came before court on several occasions and the court heard the handwriting expert’s evidence, the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria ruled that the testament be suspended on 16 February this year which then left the family with no choice but to open a case of fraud against the magistrate.
Polokwane Police Head of Communications, Ntobeng Phala confirmed that the case of fraud and misrepresentation of forged documents is under investigation. “The investigating officer is still obtaining statements from involved parties. As soon as the investigation is complete, the docket will be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions for a decision,” he said.

Story: RC Myburgh
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