Another home official nabbed and other brief reports

* ANC members of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts were reluctant yesterday to again reopen the question of alleged discrepancies between draft reports by Auditor-General Shauket Fakie on the arms deal, saying the question had been resolved during an earlier investigation. IFP MP Gavin Woods said, however, that new discrepancies had been revealed. The ad hoc committee on the office of the Auditor-General is considering what to do about recent disclosures that the draft reports were altered. – Business Day * A jury, comprising four men and eight women, has been selected for the child molestation trial of pop superstar Michael Jackson. – News24 * The kingpin of a credit card fraud syndicate, who confessed to ‘cloning’ three credit cards belonging to overseas visitors and running up bills of more than R40 000, will spend the next five years in jail. Johannes Bennie (27), of Stanger, pleaded guilty yesterday to 58 counts of fraud in terms of a plea bargain agreement with the state. – The Mercury * A teacher who admitted his mistress to hospital under his wife\'s name so that his medical aid would foot the bill has been found guilty of fraud. He pleaded guilty in the Nelspruit Magistrates’ Court and was sentenced to six months in jail, which was suspended for four years on condition that he does not defraud anyone else in that time. He has also undertaken to pay the hospital in installments of R250 a month to pay off the debt. – News24 * A truck driver has appeared in the Pinetown Magistrates’ Court for allegedly driving with a blood alcohol level 13 times higher than the legal limit. The driver was arrested after allegedly driving his truck 16km on the wrong side of the N3 freeway near Pinetown in KwaZulu-Natal. – Die Burger * Port Elizabeth Magistrate Lungile Attwell Konza (51), who presided over matters involving drunken driving and perlemoen-related cases, has himself been arrested for allegedly knocking down a teenage boy while driving under the influence of alcohol. Konza appeared in the New Brighton Magistrates’ Court. The matter was postponed to April 22 for blood results. – The Herald * The Johannesburg Commercial Crimes Court has sentenced 18-year-old Zubair Essack to a R64 000 fine or eight years in jail for selling fake DVDs. Half the sentence was suspended for five years. – News24 * The Commercial Crimes Court in Port Elizabeth has sentenced Martin Bezuidenhout (30), who pleaded guilty to stealing nearly R200 000 worth of cheese, to six years in prison. Bezuidenhout stole and sold cheese when he was a store manager at a dairy. – The Herald