High court to decide if assistant can change plea

THE Western Cape High Court is to hear an application in December to review a case involving a worker who was convicted of embezzling almost R1 million from Julius Buchinsky, a prominent city auctioneer.

Buchinsky’s former personal assistant, Najwa Taliep, 42, was to have been sentenced in November last year after pleading guilty to 631 counts of fraud involving almost R1 million.

Taliep appeared yesterday in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court before Magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg. Taliep was about to be sentenced late in November, when defence attorney William Booth replaced legal aid attorney, Hayley Lawrence.

Booth said Taliep should not have pleaded guilty and that she now wished to change her plea to not guilty.

A full-blown inquiry ensued in which the court ruled that Taliep had been correctly advised by Lawrence to plead guilty and that Taliep had been correctly convicted.

For this reason the court refused Taliep permission to change her plea.

Booth took the matter to the High Court to rule whether Taliep should be allowed to change her plea of guilty to not guilty.

At yesterday’s proceedings, prosecutor Ezmerelda Johnson told the court that Western Cape Judge-President John Hlophe had scheduled a review for December 4.

The proceedings in the commercial court were postponed to December 7.

As Buchinsky’s personal assistant, Taliep had access to his business and personal bank accounts. Her duties had included processing all electronic transactions

According to the charge sheet, Taliep fraudulently transferred R961 081 from Buchinsky’s accounts into her own two bank accounts between January 2008 and December 2010.