Algoa Fm
Convicted fraudster and legal commentator Brenda Wardle was back at the Gqeberha Specialised Commercial Crimes Court where another date for trial was set.
The 60-year-old Wardle, who made a name for herself by giving legal commentary during the Oscar Pistorius trial, was arrested in June 2017 on fraud charges involving over half a million rand.
According to the State, between April 2009 and August 2013, Wardle was paid R538,766 to assist convicted killer Stephanus van Aardt, who is a Patensie farmer for his early release on parole.
The convict, however, was not eligible for parole.
It is the State’s case that Wardle “falsely and with intent to defraud gave out and pretended to Van Aardt” that she was an attorney and she would bring an application for his early release.
The trial that is now set down for August was supposed to get underway in December last year.
Wardle, who has been represented herself since her arrest, managed to get bail in June of 2021 after spending four years behind bars awaiting her trial but on Wednesday she informed the court that she was not physically well
enough to continue and handed over the reins to Advocate Cronje Kriel, who was not present in court.
Furnishing the court with further reasons for another postponement, Wardle said she had lost the case docket she received from the State after the documents were rained on two weeks ago.
She said that the electronic version was also lost when her laptop crashed and she was awaiting an IT specialist to recoup and transfer it to her new device.
Wardle also told the court that some contents of the hard copy docket and the electronic version were not the same.
She is currently out on R50 000 bail and is residing in East London where she must present herself at a police station three times a week.
The State has since assigned a new Prosecutor and a Magistrate.
Wardle is expected back in court on the 22nd of August.
Brenda Wardle obtained her LLB Degree while serving time in prison for a 2001 fraud conviction.
