An Eastern Cape attorney has escaped jail-time for defrauding several clients, including the Maletswai Municipality, of hundreds of thousands of rands.
The East London Regional court sentenced 64 year-old Karl Olinger on Monday to two years correctional supervision.
Captain Yolisa Mgolodela of the Hawks says he was also given a further five years direct imprisonment suspended for five years provided he is not convicted of theft during the period of suspension.
In February this year, Olinger was convicted on several charges of theft of trust funds between 1999 and 2007.
The court found that Olinger, as a practising attorney, received trust funds on behalf of several clients but did not use the funds for the intended purpose.
This resulted in a number of his clients lodging complaints with the East London based Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team of the Hawks for probing.
One of his clients was the Maletswai Municipality, with the court finding that he pocketed outstanding rates instead of paying the funds over to the municipality.
Findings by the Hawks revealed that Olinger prejudiced his clients cash to the value of more than R467 000.
