After a 10-year investigation and claims that they had “caught him Al Capone style”, the Hawks’ case against alleged gang boss Shaun Ah Shene has crumbled, with charges against him now withdrawn.
Yesterday, just minutes after the case was called, state prosecutor Velile Makasana, who was standing in for state advocate Elna Smit, told magistrate Johannes Claassen that the state intended to withdraw all charges against Ah Shene.
Ah Shene, who was represented by attorney Carolyn Ah Shene-Verdoorn, was in the Port Elizabeth Commercial Crimes Court accused of defrauding the South African Revenue Service out of about R2.1m by under-declaring his income to the taxman between July 2003 and March 2009.
Ah Shene, together with his business, Coral Blue Trading CC, faced eight counts of fraud spanning a period of six years.
Makasana said: “The accused before court made representation to the director of public prosecutions.
“I have therefore been instructed to withdraw all the charges against him.”
Ah Shene was nabbed in a dramatic early-morning raid in October 2015.
At the time, advocate Warren Myburgh, of the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU), said Ah Shene had always been 20 steps ahead of the law but they had finally “got him – Al Capone-style”.
Ah Shene-Verdoorn said her client made representations based on the fact that, during a raid at his house, the state confiscated several personal documents but never returned them.
“In the absence of these documents, we felt that my client’s rights to a fair trial would not be possible,” she said.Speaking after the matter was withdrawn, Ah Shene, 50, of Adcockvale, said the state had spent the last 10 years messing up his life.
He reflected on the hardship suffered by his family, saying he had been unable to operate his tavern business without first being issued with a tax clearance certificate by SARS.
“They knew very well that they had no case to prove against me. For 10 years, this matter has been hanging over me.
“I am broke because of them. My tavern was closed down because I could not operate without documentation.
“They have caused immense damage and I was not able to put my children [through] college,” he said.
Ah Shene, however, was grateful and “very relieved that the matter is behind me.
“I will take this thing further”.
In February last year, the DPP had provisionally withdrawn the charges against Ah Shene.
However, the case was placed back on the roll just five months later.
Ah Shene is no stranger to run-ins with the law but despite numerous arrests he has never been convicted of a crime.
He has previously been arrested for offences ranging from murder to perlemoen poaching.
In 2014, Ah Shene and his wife, Virginia, were acquitted in the Port Elizabeth Regional Court of the possession of stolen property and money laundering after it was found that the warrant used by the police to search the couple’s Adcockvale home in 2008 was defective.
He is suspected to be the founder of Port Elizabeth’s oldest northern areas gang, Ah Shene’s, also called The Chinas.