A former magistrate who was accused of defrauding an insurance company by falsely claiming his car had been written off after an accident, has been found not guilty after a trial in the Windhoek High Court.
Judge Eileen Rakow found former magistrate Liwena Mikiti not guilty on counts of fraud, alternatively theft, forgery and uttering of a forged document and money laundering on Tuesday.
Defence lawyer Pieter Greyling asked the judge to find Mikiti not guilty on all charges after the state wrapped up its case against him, following a trial that started in November 2019.
The state alleged that Mikiti was involved in a collision near Oshakati with his 2009 model Mercedes-Benz vehicle on 13 June 2014.
The collision caused relatively minor damage to Mikiti’s car, which could still be driven away from the accident scene.
The prosecution also alleged that Mikiti subsequently submitted a claim to his insurance brokers and Santam Insurance Namibia, in which he indicated the accident occurred on 14 June 2014, his car was a 2010 model, and it had been extensively damaged and had to be written off.
Santam paid out an amount of N$234 555 to Mikiti as a result of the claim he submitted.
On the charge of forgery and uttering, the prosecution alleged that Mikiti changed a written report on the accident of 13 June 2014 before he presented the report and his insurance claim to his insurance brokers and Santam.
Mikiti denied guilt on all the charges.
In a plea statement, he denied that he defrauded Santam Insurance Namibia or his insurance brokers, or stole money from Santam or the brokers, and denied that he contravened the Prevention of Organised Crime Act through money laundering.
Thirteen state witnesses testified during Mikiti’s trial.
In the ruling in which Rakow found Mikiti not guilty, she recounted that one of the state’s witnesses, who had a panel beating shop at Ongwediva, told the court that Mikiti brought his car to him on 13 June 2014 to be assessed for repairs.
The only damage to the car was a bump on its rear bumper.
The witness also said Mikiti collected his car about a week later.
The witness said Mikiti phoned him about two hours later and told him he had been involved in another accident and needed to have his vehicle towed to Tsumeb.
The witness said when he saw Mikiti’s car after that, its front side was extensively damaged.
Rakow said there was no evidence showing that Mikiti was the person who changed the date of the accident and the year model of his car on the accident report that was handed to his insurance brokers.
There was also no evidence that he knew the document had been changed and that he, therefore, presented a forged document to the brokers, she said.
She also found that cellphone call records provided by Mikiti did not show that he made calls from his phone to the number of the panel beater who said Mikiti informed him that had been involved in a second accident.
“There is thus no information that the accused made calls from his cellphone to these numbers to make arrangements for the vehicle to be transported [panel beaters] at Tsumeb,” Rakow said.
State advocate Tangeni Iitula represented the prosecution during the trial.
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