Ondangwa-based magistrate, Liwena Walter Mikiti disputes the legitimacy of handwriting specimens purportedly of a police officer who attended a motor vehicle accident he was involved in. 

His lawyer, Pieter Greyling, told a police officer that ostensibly collected the specimens that he disputes the specimens. Sergeant Methodius Shaamena testified before Windhoek High Court judge Eileen Rakow that he collected the handwriting specimens of one retired police officer referred to only as Itula from his homestead in the north after the latter refused to come to the charge office in Oshakati. 

He testified that he drove to the homestead in November last year after he was requested to do so by the investigating officer in the matter. After he collected the specimens, he placed it in a forensic bag, but did not seal it and send it to Windhoek, he said. He went on to say that after he sent it to Windhoek, he did not know what happened to it. 

Greyling, during cross-examination, told the witness that his client disputes that the specimens analysed by the Namibia Police Forensic Science Institute is from Itula. The matter was previously postponed for almost a year because the report, which is to determine the handwriting on claims submitted, was outstanding. 

Mikiti is accused of duping insurance giant Santam Namibia out of N$234 555 in fraudulent insurance claims. 

He pleaded not guilty to the charges when his trial started in November 2021. 

He did not enter a plea explanation, and only confirmed his not guilty pleas through a Section 115 plea, read into the record by then-legal representative advocate Slysken Makando. 

According to the 115 pleas, he put the proof of all the allegations on the State and makes use of his right to remain silent. 

The charges emanate from an alleged car insurance fraud committed during June 2014. 

According to the charge sheet, Mikiti was the owner of a 2009 Mercedes Benz C180K BE Classic that was insured by Santam Namibia through Welwitchia Insurance Brokers. 

The vehicle was involved in a chain collision with three other vehicles on the Oshakati main road near Oneshila on 13 June 2014 and sustained minor damages but could still be driven afterwards. 

However, the indictment read, Mikiti submitted a claim that indicated the accident occurred on 14 June 2014 and that his motor vehicle sustained extensive damages that rendered it a total write-off. 

It is further alleged that Mikiti used the particulars of the accident of 13 June 2014 and the accident report issued for that accident when he claimed from the insurance. 

According to the State, it was on the basis of those particulars that Sanlam Namibia paid Mikiti the total sum. 

According to the State, Mikiti misrepresented to Sanlam that his motor vehicle was involved in an accident on 14 June and not 13 June 2014, and that it sustained damages beyond economical repairs; that it was a 2010 model instead of a 2009 model; that the other party in the accident was a Johannes Kaujeua; that the accident scene on the 14th was attended by a police officer, and that he was entitled to claim from his insurance. 

He did this, the State alleges, while he knew the damages that caused his vehicle to a write-off was not sustained during the accident of 13 June 2014 and that he made alterations to the accident report prepared on 13 June. 

The trial is continuing today, and Mikiti is free on bail. 

The prosecution is represented by advocate Timo Itula. 

- rrouth@nepc.com.na