These are some of the disgraced lawyers who stole from their clients

A total of 57 legal practitioners were disbarred or convicted of misconduct between 2018 and 2025. 

This is the figure the Legal Practitioners' Fidelity Fund released on Monday in an effort to uphold transparency and protect the public from unethical legal practitioners. 

The lawyers were disbarred or convicted for fraud, theft of trust funds and other serious offences that led them to being removed from practice. 

“The legal profession is built on trust, and when this trust is broken it not only harms clients but also damages the integrity of the justice system. By shedding light on the cases, we aim to inform the public, prevent further misconduct and encourage accountability within the legal sector,” the fund said. 

In one case, well-known Durban attorney Jayshree Baijnath was convicted of the theft of R644,000 in 2019. She was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment, wholly suspended for five years, on condition she paid R644,000 to the fund on or before December 31 2019.

The sentence was for stealing the sum from Deomathy Singh after the sale of her house.

Baijnath lodged an appeal but it was dismissed in December 2020 and she was sentenced to six years' imprisonment.    

The Witness reported the evidence presented by the state showed she misappropriated money received by her as a sole practitioner and with the intention of permanently depriving Singh and her son, Umesh, of their money.

They were reimbursed through the Attorneys Fidelity Fund which provides a safety net for those who suffer financial prejudice arising from the theft of trust money by attorneys in the course of their practice.

Umesh bought a house from his mother. After the transfer went through, Baijanath was supposed to transfer R644,989 into his mother’s account but did not do so.

Disbarred attorney Ian Stokes was found guilty of the theft of R5m. He was sentenced in 2017 to 12 years in prison, of which six were suspended for five years on condition he is not found guilty of theft committed during the period of suspension. Leave to appeal against the conviction and sentence was denied. Stokes fled SA in 2000. He was tracked in the US and extradited to SA in 2004. His trial got under way in 2014 after he sought and failed to get a permanent stay of prosecution from the Supreme Court of Appeal. 

Attorney Erhard Taljaard was found guilty by the Pretoria specialised commercial crimes court of the theft of R5.2m in 2017. He was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment, of which three years was suspended for four years on condition he was not convicted of any offence of which dishonesty was an element committed during the period of suspension.

Fusi Macheka was convicted of the theft of trust funds. In 2018 he was sentenced to 30 months' imprisonment for the theft of R46,000. Macheka was granted leave to appeal against the sentence. His appeal to the Constitutional Court was dismissed in April 2020.

After serving his sentence, Macheka applied to the Free State high court for readmission as an attorney of the court. The application was opposed by the Legal Practice Council. In dismissing his application, the court in November 2023 said Macheka had dismally failed to make a case for his readmission.

Judge Pitso Molitswane said: “I cannot find that he is a fit and proper person to be readmitted as a legal practitioner.”

TimesLIVE