After Absa returns Suliman Carrim’s ‘stolen’ vehicles

The state charged businessman Suliman Carrim with attempting to steal two BMW X5s weeks after Absa allegedly returned the same vehicles to his company and began restoring their monthly payment arrangements.

The sequence, disclosed in Carrim’s bail affidavit on Friday, raises a question the prosecution has yet to answer publicly. Why did it add him to an attempted theft case after the bank restored the vehicles to his company?

Police intercepted the BMWs at Beitbridge on July 22 as two Malawian men allegedly tried to take them through Zimbabwe to Malawi using fraudulent Absa authorisation letters.

Absa initially repossessed both vehicles. But Carrim told the Musina Magistrate’s Court that the bank subsequently agreed to release them to Zigi Investments CC, the company named in their finance agreements.

“I thereafter approached Absa to regularise the position,” he said in an affidavit read by his lawyer.

Carrim said correspondence from September 28 to October 5 recorded the bank’s requirements for releasing the vehicles. His company supplied proof of payments covering arrears, instalments and recovery charges.

“I confirm that the vehicles were subsequently returned into possession of Zigi Investments CC,” he said.

The bank’s decision

Carrim said Absa later asked whether it could reactivate debit orders cancelled when the cars were repossessed. A company representative authorised reactivation on October 5.

“The payments referred to the release amounts, not final settlement of the underlying vehicle finance balances,” he said.

He acknowledged that Absa had contemplated terminating the agreements and that the correspondence did not prove every administrative step was completed. He nevertheless insisted that his company regained possession and continued paying instalments.

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Prosecutors added Carrim to the criminal case on October 21, more than two weeks after the correspondence concerning renewed payments.

National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Mashudu Malabi has said Carrim allegedly colluded with employees to steal the vehicles by moving them across the border using fraudulent documents.

Carrim faces two attempted theft counts, two uttering counts and money laundering. Prosecutors added two immigration charges on Friday, alleging that he employed the Malawian men without the necessary authorisation.

Contract breach or theft

Carrim admits knowing that Zakes Ibrahim and Musa Phiri wanted to travel to Malawi in his company’s vehicles. But he says he told them to wait for Absa’s written permission.

He says he was admitted to a Cape Town clinic from June 17 until July 25 and intended to seek the bank’s approval after discharge.

“I did not instruct or authorise anyone to proceed without that permission,” he said.

He denies arranging or knowing about the allegedly forged letters. He argues that a breach of a finance agreement cannot, without proof of criminal intention, establish attempted theft.

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South African law distinguishes unlawful vehicle use from theft, which requires an intention to appropriate property unlawfully and permanently deprive its owner of ownership benefits.

Absa’s decision to release the BMWs does not automatically defeat the state’s case. An attempted theft could already have occurred before police stopped the cars, whatever the bank later decided.

Neither would the release erase the alleged use of forged documents. The prosecution must still prove Carrim’s knowledge or participation rather than rely solely on his ownership of the company.

Carrim also relies on draft plea documents attributed to Ibrahim. He says they describe Ibrahim obtaining a fraudulent letter from an unidentified man at Beitbridge, without implicating Carrim in the arrangement.

Why prosecute

The state has not yet publicly explained how Absa’s alleged return of the vehicles affects its case against Carrim. The bank has not independently confirmed his account of their release.

Absa’s decision concerns its commercial rights, while prosecutors may still pursue crimes they believe the evidence establishes. The bank’s return of the vehicles therefore does not amount to an acquittal or withdrawal of any charge.

But the chronology sharpens the question prosecutors must answer: What evidence shows Carrim intended to steal the BMWs and shared the plan to use fraudulent letters, despite his account of bank repayments and the vehicles’ return?

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The bank must also explain why it restored possession after the border incident and whether it did so while reserving its rights to pursue a criminal complaint.

Carrim remains in custody in the Musina case despite receiving R100,000 bail in a separate matter linked to the Madlanga commission.

The magistrate postponed the bail hearing until November 9 to allow the state to study the affidavit and respond.