At former cricketer GARTH LE ROUX’s home on Fancourt golf estate in George his wife Tina recounts her sadness, despair and fury over “the hell we’ve been put through”.
Garth has been acquitted on 46 of 49 charges involving tax fraud and theft but he still faces jail. A former fast bowler with an impeccable record, he was recently sentenced to six years’ imprisonment (with two years suspended) after being convicted on the three charges of fraud in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court in Cape Town. But the family will take their fight to clear his name to a higher court.
“My husband isn’t a criminal but his name has been dragged through the mud. And once we’ve proved the last three charges are also unfounded the fur is going to fly!” Tina says. “Before the magistrate sentenced Garth he took the unusual step of saying he’d allow him to appeal because another court might make a different ruling.”
The three charges involve commission Garth exchanged for a discount on two houses and club membership at Fancourt, where he’s a sales agent. His lawyer, Henry Vorster, a professor in tax law at the University of Johannesburg, says it’s your constitutional right to arrange your affairs to pay the minimum in tax. This is called avoidance rather than tax evasion, which is a criminal offence.
Garth’s employers at Fancourt are unequivocal about his integrity, honesty and trustworthiness. They undertook a forensic investigation that found he hadn’t put a foot wrong, Henry Vorster says.
Geoff Dakin, a former president of SA Cricket, says during SA’s days of sporting isolation English and Australian cricket supporters praised Garth. “It’s simply impossible that he was deliberately dishonest.”
“I’m tired,” Garth says. “Working through 49 charges is exhausting. You end up having no energy for anything. You lose faith in the system. If I was really dishonest this prosecution would never have happened.”
