Escapee fined over fraud and forgery

THE German car theft suspect whose escape from Police custody late last year ended in an arrest at a hairdresser at Mariental was sentenced to pay a fine of N$6 000 or serve a two-year prison sentence on charges of fraud, forgery and uttering last week.

The sentencing of German national Joshua Hecht (31) in the Windhoek Regional Court on Wednesday concludes only one of the cases in which Hecht is facing charges in Namibian courts. Also in the Windhoek Regional Court, Hecht is still in the dock on a charge of motor vehicle theft, while a case in which he has been charged over his escape from Police custody on October 16 last year is still pending in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court as well.Following his escape from Windhoek Central Hospital, where he was supposed to be kept under Police guard, Hecht was rearrested at a Mariental hairdressing salon, where he was getting his beard shaved, on October 19.In the case finalised before Magistrate Sarel Jacobs last week, Hecht was charged with two counts of fraud, alternatively theft of a motor vehicle, and further charges of forgery and uttering.He was ultimately only convicted on one count of fraud, as well as the charges of forgery and uttering. Hecht admitted guilt on the forgery and uttering charges at the start of his trial in July last year.Hecht was accused of using a forged letter from Buschschule Namibia – the organisation that runs an educational and therapeutic programme in Namibia for troubled children from Germany – to hire a Toyota bakkie from a Windhoek car rental company on October 8 2008. In connection with that incident, Hecht was charged with fraud, alternatively theft of a motor vehicle, and counts of forgery and uttering.Hecht was also charged with a second main count of fraud, alternatively theft of a motor vehicle, in connection with an incident in which he removed a Volkswagen Microbus from a Windhoek service station on March 18 2008. That vehicle was still found in Hecht’s possession sixteen days later.Hecht claimed during his trial that he used the forged letter to hire the bakkie after he was approached by two German nationals who offered him N$20 000 to transport them from Windhoek to Henties Bay and beyond.On the other fraud and car theft charge he claimed he was asked by someone to collect the VW Microbus from the service station and deliver it to someone at Outapi. When he collected that car, he gave his name and address, and afterwards also did not alter the vehicle to hide its registration number, Magistrate Jacobs noted in his judgement.That behaviour was accepted as an indication that Hecht’s version on that charge was a reasonable possibility that might be true.On the other fraud charge, though, Magistrate Jacobs found that when Hecht presented the forged document to the car rental company he knew that Buschschule Namibia would not be paying for the rental, with the result that he knew he was making a false representation. As a result, he was convicted of fraud.The magistrate sentenced Hecht on all three charges to pay a fine of N$6 000 or serve a two-year prison term, and also sentenced him to a further jail term of one year, which was suspended for a period of five years on condition that Hecht is not again convicted of fraud, forgery or uttering committed during the period of suspension.Hecht was defended by Legal Aid Directorate lawyer Brownell Uirab. Ingrid Husselmann prosecuted.