/ 19 January 2010

McBride’s doctor faked certificates before, court hears

The doctor who allegedly issued a medical certificate stating that former Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride was not drunk at the time of his 2006 car crash had done a similar thing in the past, the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court heard on Monday.

“[Dr Joseph] Moratioa told him [McBride] that giving the certificate would not be problem as he had done this sort of thing before,” McBride’s former colleague Patrick Johnson testified, the Star newspaper reported.

Moratioa faces a charge of fraud and another of defeating the ends of justice.

McBride’s colleagues apparently approached several doctors following his car crash on December 21 2006, after a year-end function near Hartebeespoort Dam. The former metro police chief was allegedly drunk at the time and was looking for a doctor to issue a certificate stating that he was not under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident.

“After we were instructed by McBride to find a doctor who would give the certificate, it was a 24-hour job because he was very desperate. Many doctors turned us down because they saw the story in the newspapers and were afraid that they would be implicated in the whole thing,” Johnson was quoted as saying.

A former colleague of Johnson’s, Stanley Sagathevan, testified that he asked his cousin, a doctor, to issue the certificate. He however refused.

Sagathevan told the court McBride allegedly threatened to rape their wives and kill their dogs if they revealed how they had covered up the drunken driving incident. – Sapa