Fraud accused legal commentator Brenda Wardle (58) made a brief appearance in court yesterday where she demanded her laptop be plugged in inside the holding cells to allow her to prepare her own defence. The Herald reports this is not the first time Wardle has made odd requests in the Port Elizabeth Commercial Crimes Court.

She has previously requested three-ply toilet paper to be supplied to her by the state while she remains in custody. Yesterday, she told Magistrate Johannes Claassen that although she was allowed to access her laptop in the holding cells when she waits to be taken back to the North End Prison she was unable to use it as the battery had died.

‘I only have access to it when at court,’ Wardle said.

Claassen said she could charge her laptop in the courtroom but he would not allow her to take the cord into the holding cells. Wardle then requested that the court’s police officer remain with her at the holding cells, which Claassen rejected. The report notes Wardle stands accused of fraud after it was found that she was not a legal practising attorney as defined by the Attorneys Act when she told an Eastern Cape family she could get their relative paroled early.

Wardle allegedly swindled the family out of more than R500 000. She has been representing herself since her arrest in June last year. Wardle will appear in the Eastern Cape High Court (Port Elizabeth) on Thursday for her appeal for bail based on new facts, after which she will return to the Commercial Crimes Court on Friday for her matter to be heard further.

Full report in The Herald (subscription needed)