Lady luck ran out for a Chin national dubbed a serial offender as he has twice previously been granted a suspended sentence for being in possession of abalone worth millions and operating an illegal abalone plant.
Beiping Zhang managed to evade prison twice as the prosecutor in his trials simply accepted a guilty plea bargain in return for a non-custodial sentence, without actually establishing that he, in fact, had previous convictions in this regard.
He also always somehow managed to secure bail after he was once again caught for a similar offence.
But it was third time unlucky for Zhang after he was once again caught for the illegal dealings in abalone, and the magistrate refused to accept his guilty plea this time and revoked his bail.
What makes his cases even more bizarre is the fact that, although he had a suspended sentence over his head for a previous similar offence, he somehow always managed to convince the courts never to put it into operation.
Following the most recent case against him, a magistrate had revoked his bail. Upset with this, Zhang turned to the Western Cape High Court to appeal against this.
In turning down his appeal, Judge Mark Sher questioned Zhang’s luck in evading the prison doors for so long.
The judge dealt with the duty of a prosecutor to obtain particulars of an accused’s previous convictions before concluding a plea and sentence agreement and to ensure that these particulars are disclosed in the agreement to the court.
After the lower court had put its foot down to entertain Zhang’s latest plea bargain, and the refusal by the high court to rule in his favour on appeal, he will now have to go through a trial while in prison.
The latest charges he is facing concern the alleged possession and processing of 7,855 units of abalone worth R2.89 million and the unlawful operation of an abalone processing plant.
He was arrested in July last year in West Beach, Bloubergstrand, on charges of contravening the Marine Living Resources Act.
At Zhang’s appearance in court, the prosecutor told the magistrate that, three months earlier, Zhang had pleaded guilty in the regional court of Gqeberha to similar offences involving abalone committed in July 2021.
In fact, he had been convicted not only of contravening the MLRA but also of the offence of ‘money laundering.' On each of the two charges, Zhang was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, which was conditionally suspended for five years.
In spite of these circumstances and even though the prosecutor noted that Zhang had a Chinese passport and his status here was unclear, he did not oppose Zhang’s release on R100,000 bail.
Eight months later, while he was on bail, Zhang was arrested again, this time in Durbanville, on charges relating to the illegal dealing in abalone.
Shortly afterwards, he entered into a plea and sentence agreement in the regional court of Bellville and admitted to illegally receiving and processing 10,121 units of wet and dried abalone valued at R3.5 million.
Despite his previous conviction and the suspended sentence which had been imposed on him less than a year earlier, he managed to persuade the prosecutor to agree to the imposition of another wholly suspended sentence.
Judge Sher commented that it seems that the prosecutor agreed to this because he did not have regard for the previous conviction and the sentence which was earlier imposed. Bizarrely, the judge said, it was even noted as one of the mitigating factors that Zhang had “a previous conviction for a similar offence,” but the particulars thereof were not set out.
“Thus, it appears the prosecutor either concluded the plea and sentence agreement hastily, without properly ascertaining what the particulars of the appellant’s previous conviction and the sentence which was imposed in respect of it were, or he concluded the agreement well knowing what they were but failed to ensure that they were disclosed to the court…” the judge said.
He noted that Zhang is a serial offender who has no respect for the law. The fact that Zhang committed a similar offence whilst he was on bail awaiting trial in this matter suggests that he has a propensity to commit such offences and will continue to do so, the judge said.
“Notwithstanding the extraordinary run of good fortune which the appellant (Zhang) has had up to now, it must surely have come to an end. Given his record and the fact that he has already twice received the benefit of a suspended sentence, the chance that, in the event of a conviction in the current matter, he will be lucky for a third time is remote.”
Judge Sher added that Zhang is likely to receive a lengthy sentence of imprisonment this time.
He concluded that the magistrate was correct to have revoked his bail this time around.
But concerned with how Zhang got away with so much up to now while facing the law, the judge referred the matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions for investigation.
Pretoria News