A case in which former Botswana Police Service paying officer David Williams and his wife, Seonyana ÔÇô are facing fraud charges after then-presiding Magistrate Banyatsi Mmekwa had to join private practice ÔÇô is scheduled to resume next Monday on 18 May before Broadhurst magistrate Pretty Ndlovu. It has been seven years since the case was first heard.
The two are alleged to have swindled the government of over P1m, which the state alleges Williams obtained whilst he was working as a paying officer.
During the trial before Mmekwa, the state led evidence which included that given by Williams’s nephews who are police officers and turned state witnesses.
The two told the Court about money their uncle used to instruct them to go and collect from their accounts after he had deposited it and to give it to his wife on several occasions. They said the money differed in amounts.
When asked where they thought all the money was from, they told the Court that they thought it was from their uncle and wife’s business.
After Mmekwa had left for private practice, several attempts were made to get him back so he could finish the case to no avail.
Williams and his wife then launched a civil case seeking the case to be permanently shelved on grounds that the state had taken long to prosecute them, which was an infringement of their constitutional rights to prosecution within reasonable time.
They however lost the case as the presiding judge in the matter ruled that they were also to blame for the delay as they had sometimes excused themselves from attending on grounds that they had some family matters to attend to.
