Fidentia accountant released immediately

Cape Town - The Western Cape High Court on Friday ordered the immediate release from prison of former Fidentia accountant Graham Maddock.

Maddock, 55, has already served two of the seven years of his prison sentence, and qualified for the remaining five years to be converted into non-custodial correctional supervision.

His remaining five years were reduced to 12 months house arrest, during which he will also have to do 16 hours a month community service, at a venue to be decided by the prison authorities.

In April, the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court rejected an application launched by the prison authorities, for the conversion of the remaining five years into correctional supervision.

Magistrate Amrith Chabillal said at the time that Maddock had been sentenced in plea-bargain proceedings, and that Maddock had in fact agreed to the effective seven-year prison sentence as fair and just punishment for his involvement in the Fidentia fraud.

Chabillal said that he, too, had considered the sentence fair and just, taking into account all that had had to be considered, and that he was unlikely to have agreed to any sentence less severe.

In Friday's proceedings, Western Cape Deputy Judge-President Jeanette Traverso and Judge Elise Steyn ruled that Chabillal's approach had been wrong.

Maddock's wife and family attended the proceedings.

The judges said Chabillal should have considered a fresh sentence based on new facts as presented in the application, which included Maddock's exemplary behaviour in prison.

The judges said Maddock had shown himself to be an extraordinary prisoner, and the respect he had displayed towards all had even impacted on the prison warders.

Although rehabilitation was one of the purposes of punishment, Maddock did not have a criminal mind and thus did not need rehabilitation, they said.

Because they had the powers to change the sentence themselves, it would serve no purpose to refer the matter back to Chabillal, they said.