Former African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni has been punished enough and now deserves some mercy, the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court hears.

"My client has thrown himself before you and is asking for mercy," defence counsel Viwe Notshe told Magistrate Bill Moyses today.

"He has been punished by the public, his name has been in the media day in and day out. He has suffered indignity."

Notshe said his client had suffered major financial losses as a result of the prosecution. The conviction would affect his political career, which had already taken a knock when he was demoted from the position of chief whip.

Moyses convicted Yengeni of fraud last week after the MP pleaded guilty in terms of a plea agreement with the state.

In return the state agreed not to prosecute him further on a corruption charge on which he was acquitted. The charges relate to a 47% discount he received on a luxury 4x4 Mercedes Benz in 1998.

He said he convinced his co-accused, businessman Michael Woerfel, to arrange the deal on a Mercedes-Benz ML 320. Woerfel was at the time the head of Daimler-Benz Aerospace's Pretoria representative office.

Daimler-Benz Aerospace was the manufacturer of the AT2000 - which was then being considered with two other light fighter aircraft as part of South Africa's arms acquisition process.

Notshe said: "This infamous 4x4 has become the most expensive 4x4 in SA."

"The benefit of the discount he received has been eroded by subsequent events."

Notshe said his client had decided to do the honourable thing and "fall on his sword" by pleading guilty to fraud.

Yengeni had been slaughtered by the media. "He has been cut, quartered and hung up to dry."

A fine would be an appropriate sentence, said Notshe. He asked Moyses not to impose a prison sentence.

The crime should be seen against the circumstances which included ambiguities in the parliamentary code of conduct as to what constituted a benefit, he said.

Unlike ordinary cases of fraud, no victim suffered a material loss in this matter. The victim in this case was Parliament and the only loss it suffered was a potential loss of integrity, Notshe said.

Parliament itself did not regard non-disclosure in a serious light. It had not criminalised it and the internal penalty was not severe, he contended.

The penalties included the forfeiture of no more than a month's salary or suspension for up to a month, Notshe said.

The case continues.

With acknowledgements to Sapa and the Business Day.