Lawyer who stole R500,000 of client’s money gets reprieve from court

The Western Cape High Court has dismissed an application by the South African Legal Practice Council (LPC) to appeal against a November judgment that spared attorney Jan Lodewyk Fourie from being struck off the roll. In the November judgment, judges Gayaat Salie Da Silva and Nontuthuzelo Ralarala ruled that while Fourie’s conduct was a serious breach of professional ethics, his acute personal implosion and subsequent efforts at restitution justified a protective rather than purely punitive approach. In May 2024, Fourie’s client had entrusted him to hold R500,000 in trust, which was to be placed in an interest-bearing account.

The funds were paid into Fourie’s trust account on July 24 2024. However, Fourie failed to invest the funds, failed to provide proof of investment or interest, and failed repeatedly to respond to the complainant and LPC’s enquiries of July 2 2025 and September 3 2025. Fourie admitted he used the trust money to address his personal and practice obligations during a period of emotional and financial collapse.

Fourie placed before the court extensivematerial concerning a period of severe instability, including a divorce in February 2024 with attendant financial and emotional strain, a business partnership collapse requiring urgent restructuring of the practice and his father’s kidney failure, with Fourie undergoing extensive donor-compatibility tests. He repaid the R500,000 only on November 1 2025, after the interim suspension order by judge Mokgoatji Dolamo on October 31 2025. In the order made in November, the court said Fourie may practise only as an employed attorney under the supervision of a legal practitioner in good standing, approved in writing by the LPC.

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In addition, the court ordered Fourie to pay all interest due on the R500,000 trust funds and submit proof to the LPC. He was also ordered to undergo psychological treatment and file quarterly progress reports with the court. Fourie was also required to complete courses in trust account management and professional ethics.

Dissatisfied with the November 2025 order, the LPC sought to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal against the whole of the judgment and order handed down in November 2025, save for the order that Fourie pay the costs of the LPC’s initial application. Da Silva Salie and Ralarala heard LPC’s application for leave to appeal on Tuesday and dismissed it on the same day. They said the nub of the LPC’s complaint was that the court materially misdirected itself in exercising its discretion by suspending Fourie from practising on his own account rather than removing him from the roll. The LPC contended that once dishonesty was established, removal was the default sanction unless exceptional circumstances were proved.

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