Former Springbok cyclist Neil Crosthwaite (40) will soon be a free man after four years of his seven-year sentence on 339 counts of corruption was suspended on Thursday, making him eligible for parole.

Crosthwaite was not in the Pietermaritzburg High Court to hear the news but after the court adjourned, his French wife, Magalie, tried desperately to contact him.

She wiped away tears of joy and said she is very happy about the new sentence. Crosthwaite's father, Mike, said the family are thrilled.

"He did the crime and served the time. Justice has now been done and we can all get on with our lives," he said.

Crosthwaite was sentenced in December 2003 at the Durban Regional Court after pleading guilty to 339 counts of corruption totalling more than R600 000 for paying Health Department officials in six provincial hospitals to facilitate supply contracts for his medical equipment companies. His companies benefited by more than R1 million.

Judges Ron McLaren and Dumile Kondile said the sentence imposed was far too severe considering all the relevant factors.

McLaren said he is reluctant to criticise the judgments of magistrates but in his view magistrate Hamilton Cele erred in certain respects.

He said Crosthwaite's advocate, Chris van Vuuren, stressed in his argument that Crosthwaite spent 15 months in prison awaiting trial as he was denied bail.

On the day of his arrest he was on his way to Gauteng and when he heard on the radio that there were arrests in connection with a hospital corruption scheme, he turned around and handed himself to the relevant authorities and was immediately arrested. He also handed all the records he kept on the scheme to police.

McLaren said Cele paid insufficient attention to Crosthwaite's detention prior to his plea. He added that parole is considered from the time of conviction and not the first arrest.

He said Cele regarded Crosthwaite as a significant person at the wheel of the whole corruption scheme.

"It takes two parties to be involved in corruption and each plays a role, for a scheme like this to get underway," he said, adding that it can get underway if one person makes the first move and is open to corruption.

McLaren said Crosthwaite's response, that he got into "a lifestyle" when he was asked why he didn't pull out of the scheme, was wrongly interpreted by Cele.

Cele got the impression that he was referring to a grand lifestyle. McLaren said his impression was that Crosthwaite referred to having representatives working for him whom he had to pay.

He said another area where Cele erred was by inferring that Crosthwaite owed money to the state when there was not a scrap of evidence suggesting that the state suffered a loss due to the overvalued work he rendered.

"The investigating officer made it clear that the charges are corruption and not fraud," said McLaren.

"[Crosthwaite] made a complete disclosure of the scheme, pleaded guilty, showed real remorse and promised to co-operate with the state and police," said McLaren.

He said normally, consideration is not given to what happens after sentencing but in this case, Crosthwaite not only kept the promises he made to Cele but also went beyond these promises by addressing the public about the evils of corruption.

"He has also completely or significantly rehabilitated himself," said McLaren.

He added that Crosthwaite's two co-conspirators, who pleaded guilty to 12 and 15 counts of corruption, were been sentenced to three years' imprisonment or a fine of R60 000.

With acknowledgement to The Natal Witness.

In the case currently being held in Court A in the Durban High Court, the Accused have been indicted on two counts of corruption and one of fraud. In total the amounts add up to a figure in the region of R3 million.

Other differences are :

The Accused pleaded non-guilty;
The Accused has regularly submitted false versions of events to the Court;
The natural Accused was not arrested;
The Accused has not spent time in jail so far waiting for the court case;
The Accused has not co-operated at all with the investigators;
The Accused has submitted false documentary evidence to the Court (almost certainly fabricated);
The National Director of the NPA declined to prosecute the two co-conspirators;
Failure to prosecute co-conspirators, apart from being unjustifiable, has made the State's case orders of magnitude more difficult.
The Accused has so far shown no remorse;
The alleged criminal conduct of the Accused and co-conspirators directly involves State procurements of a value of upwards of R2,5 billion (in 2005 Rands), this being the value of the contracts placed on the Accused and co-conspirator's companies;
The alleged criminal conduct of the Accused and co-conspirators indirectly involves State procurements of a value of upwards of R12 billion (in 2005 Rands), this being the value of the procurement potentially affected by faulty performance by co-conspirators;
The alleged criminal conduct of the Accused and co-conspirators involves potential Third Party losses involving hundreds of millions of 2005 Rands.

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