Stumps were drawn early on Tuesday afternoon in the fraud trial of former national cricketer Garth le Roux and his accountant following legal argument over the testimony of the state’s first witness.
Wynberg regional magistrate Jackie Redelinghuys will rule on Wednesday morning on a defence claim that South African Revenue Service (Sars) investigator Lorenzo van Vuuren is being asked to give his opinion on matters of law, and that this is impermissible.
The dispute arose as the prosecution was handing in a series of documents from Sars files, and Van Vuuren identified an amount on one of them as being ”due and payable” tax.
Advocate Andre la Grange, for Le Roux’s co-accused Gideon van Heerden, said the trial centred on a difference in interpretation of the Income Tax and Value Added Tax Acts.
It had never been permitted in South African courts for a police officer, which was what Van Vuuren was, to give evidence on how he interpreted the law, and what it meant.
If Van Vuuren was allowed to do so, the defence might call to the stand the professor of tax law who was assisting it, ”and what are you going to do then?”
Advocate Wim Trengove, for Le Roux, said expert evidence on matters of law was never admissible, no matter how exotic the field of law might be.
Prosecutor Bronwen Hendry said there was no clear line in case law between facts, inferences based on those facts, and opinions, and it was ”unnecessary” for the court to deprive itself of the assistance of Van Vuuren’s evidence.
After hearing it, Redelinghuys would still be able to make an evaluation and draw his own conclusions and findings.
She said Van Vuuren needed to establish as ”historical fact” how he applied the tax laws, and to prevent him from doing so would be a distortion of the facts.
Le Roux and Van Heerden have pleaded not guilty to 48 charges of fraud, alternatively theft or contravention of tax laws, involving millions of rands.
Le Roux also faces one charge of contravening exchange control regulations.
The charges stem from a Sars probe into Le Roux’s activities as sales agent for properties on the prestigious Fancourt golf estate at George. — Sapa