Hit-and-run driver pleads guilty
The Estcourt man is expected to be sentenced on January 25.
RAKESH Omarpersadh (44), the man responsible for the death of Southbroom jogger, Carol Ann Tucker (47) in March last year, appeared in the Port Shepstone Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday this week.
Omarpersadh, who is from Estcourt, is out on R10 000 bail and has pleaded guilty to seven charges. The case has been postponed to January 25 next year for sentencing.
Omarpersadh was on holiday with his family in Port Edward and was apparently returning to Port Edward from a nightclub in Margate on March 3, 2013 when the accident occurred.
He fled the scene.
The court heard that while Omarpersadh was driving along the R61 he felt a bump and realised that he had struck something.
He stopped his vehicle some distance away and found that water was leaking from the radiator. He decided to continue to the apartment in Port Edward as he did not want to be stranded on the roadside.
He contacted a tow truck operator he knew and arranged for his vehicle to be towed to Durban.
Omarpersadh then went to Sydenham where he reported the accident, but did not report the true facts. Instead, he said the accident had occurred outside Eshowe.
Intensive investigations by Margate Task Team, led by Brigadier Morris Moodley, revealed that a BMW X5 had been booked in for repairs at an automotive shop in Durban.
Ms Tucker’s blood was found on the vehicle and a positive match was made between the vehicle and debris found at the scene.
Omarpersadh has been charged with culpable homicide, failing to stop after an accident, failing to ascertain the nature and extent of any injury sustained by any person, failing to render assistance, failure to perform duties of a driver after an accident, defeating the administration of justice and fraud.
