George Herald | Michael Toerien gets 10 years

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Michael Toerien gets 10 years
15:00 (GMT+2), Fri, 18 May 2012

GEORGE NEWS FLASH - Former Knysna broker, Michael Toerien (58) showed up in the George Court alone and with his bag packed yesterday, May 17, knowing full well that he was going to spend a long time behind bars.

Toerien was duly sentenced to 10 years imprisonment after pleading guilty on all the charges from 24 complainants. The charges related to clients' misappropriated funds amounting to R11 394 549. The court heard that some of the clients had been close personal friends of Toerien and several have been left financially ruined and are now destitute.

"People keep expecting there to be some big revelation as to what happened to the money," explains Toerien's legal counsel, Alwyn Griebenow of Port Elizabeth. "It was a simple case of living in Knysna and 'keeping up with the Joneses'. What he earned as a broker was minimal, so that is why he admits to using his clients' money to keep up pretences of a certain lifestyle."

Both Griebenow and the chief investigation officer for the state, Captain RP van der Westhuizen, believe that Toerien sincerely regrets his actions.

"He wanted to ask forgiveness for what he had done, but due to the pending case he wasn't allowed to make contact with the complainants. When he tried to greet some of his previous clients at court, they just turned away," says Griebenow.

Giving sentence, district magistrate Marius Fourie, took into consideration Toerien's age and that he was a first-time offender.