This is an application to have the respondent’s name struck off the roll of advocates in terms of section 7(1)(d) of the Admission of Advocates Act, Act 74 of 1964 (“the Act”).

The applicant is the Eastern Cape Society of Advocates, a society of advocates as envisaged in section 7(2) of the Act. It brings this application against the respondent, an admitted advocate of this Court. The application is brought on two grounds; firstly, that the respondent was convicted of theft by the Regional Court, Port Elizabeth and that on 12 October 2010, his appeal against that conviction was dismissed by Judges Pickering and Revelas of this Court. The respondent had been convicted for theft of R7,368.00 and had been sentenced to a fine of R4 000,00 or two years imprisonment, together with a further period of three years imprisonment, the whole of which was suspended for four years on certain conditions. In the appeal judgment, the Registrar of this Court was directed to deliver a copy of the judgment to the secretary of the applicant. It is that order which resulted in this application. The second ground on which the application is brought emanates from results of investigations conducted by the applicant which, according to the applicant, reveal the respondent’s involvement in a “pyramid scheme”. Criminal proceedings in which the respondent has been charged with fraud relating to that pyramid scheme are pending before the Regional Court, Port Elizabeth.