The Pretoria high court has suspended a Pretoria lawyer who allegedly stole from Road Accident Fund (RAF) claimants and possibly committed fraud when he took out a loan of R500,000 using a client’s details.
The Legal Practice Council (LPC) Gauteng director Ignatius Briel initiated an urgent application last week to have attorney Sipho Gift Baloyi disbarred arguing he was a risk to “unsuspecting clients and public”.
Baloyi faces several serious financial misconduct complaints from his clients and has failed to account for his firm’s finances.
One of the complaints was filed by Roadbridge, a company which offers loans to RAF claimants accused him of taking a loan of R500,000 on behalf of a client and failing to pay it back.
Baloyi allegedly told his client the loan application was unsuccessful.
“On July 25 2023, Roadbridge was able to contact the firm and [Baloyi] admitted the firm had used the loan funds. [Baloyi] informed Roadbridge he was in the process of selling a property of his in Brits so he can raise funds to repay the loan,” the LPC court papers read.
The LPC argued because Baloyi admitted in an email to using the funds belonging to the client, he is possibly guilty of committing fraud.
Godfrey Mohajane filed a complaint to the LPC in 2020 after he appointed Baloyi to attend the winding up of the estate of his late sister.
Mohajane said he did not receive an original statement of all the money the firm received and the repayments made and he had not received a liquidation and distribution account to enable him to see the funds received.
Mohajane said Boloyi told him he received R600,000 in a sale of undeveloped property. The firm allegedly deducted R190,000 from the amount.
From a R65,000 payout from the deceased’s workplace Baloyi allegedly deducted R10,000.
Mohajane said the deductions were more than the 3.5% of fees “of all work done” the firm said it would deduct.
He said the firm did not account and did not pay the amounts due after finalisation of the estate.
The LPC also received a complaint from an RAF claimant who alleged the firm paid her R50,000 but received R300,000 from the fund. The claimant alleged the firm was no longer answering her calls or messages.
The LPC instructed Deleeuw Swart, an independent chartered accountant, to visit the firm and conduct an inspection of its financial books and investigate the complaints against Baloyi.
Since May 2024, Swart has not been able to find Baloyi. In his report, Swart said he visited Baloyi’s office in Pretoria and the reception of the offices in the building informed him “the firm left the premises a long time ago and could not provide a new address”.
Calls to Baloyi and attempts to trace him at different addresses linked to him were unsuccessful. Swart was “not able to inspect the firm’s accounting records.”
Despite the CA unable to trace Baloyi, the LPC found Baloyi to be unfit to be a lawyer.
“It appears [Baloyi] has abandoned his practice,” the LPC argued.
“The firm did not submit a legal practitioner’s annual statement on trust accounts and an independent auditor’s reasonable assurance report on legal practitioner’s trust account to [LPC] for the years ended February 28,2023 and February 29, 2024. If Baloyi was still practising, he was practising without a Fidelity Certificate Account since January 2024.”
According to law, a lawyer cannot have a trust account without a Fidelity certificate.
LPC has found Baloyi misappropriated funds because by February 2022, he had a trust deficit of more than R300,000.
Baloyi also failed to fully defend himself to LPC against allegations and refused to account for a deceased estate when the children of deceased filed a complaint in 2021. When one of the children turned 18, she lodged a complaint with LPC after not receiving funds from the firm from her mother’s estate.
At the time the children were staying with their unemployed grandmother.
The LPC said several disciplinary meetings were set up for Baloyi to respond to allegations but did not show up. In one of the meetings, he advised the LPC he was sick.
“The executor of the estate advised that the estate has funds and that monies were paid out but there was no knowledge as to the benefactor of these funds,” the LPC court papers read.
Another complaint by William Chauke alleged Baloyi failed to inform him of his RAF payout of more than R400,000 when it was paid to the firm.
“Chauke was informed of the payout independently when visiting RAF’s offices. Chauke confronted [Baloyi], however, he has been giving him the runaround.”
The LPC found Baloyi guilty of unprofessional, dishonourable and unworthy conduct “revealing serious character defects which renders him unfit to practise as an attorney”.
The court suspended Baloyi, temporarily, and gave him until October 2 to argue why the order should not be made final. He was not represented in court last week.
“Baloyi is suspended from practising as an attorney until such a time he satisfies that he is fit and proper person to resume practice as an attorney,” court order read.
The court also ordered Baloyi to surrender his attorney certificate within two weeks to the court. Briel was given legal powers to take control of Baloyi’s trust account and for the attorney to submit financial records.
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