A woman caught at Monte Casino in Fourways more than nine years ago and arrested on suspicion of trespassing has now discovered she has a criminal record.
Nila Milner was not allowed to visit Monte Casino or any other gambling institutions.
Milner told the Johannesburg High Court that she had done nothing wrong and was only in the vicinity of the casino, yet was made to pay a R300 admission of guilt fine.
It is not clear from the judgment by Judge LR Adams as to why exactly Milner was not allowed to visit casinos. But Milner asked the court to instruct the criminal record centre to remove her name from its records. She is also demanding her R300 back.
She said after her arrest in September 2012 near the casino, she was taken to Douglasdale police station.
Milner said she was "tricked" into admitting guilt and paying an admission of guilt fine. She did not at the time realise that this would result in her having a criminal record.
She only discovered seven years later, in 2019, that she was in fact now regarded as a criminal, as she had a criminal record for trespassing.
Milner said that after her arrest, "I was extremely nervous and concerned that I was going to be detained".
She said she decided to co-operate as far as possible with police as she just wanted to get home. "The policeman advised me that if I paid R300 I could go home and I would not have to sleep in the cells until the Monday.
"I had no idea what the R300 was for. The policeman promised that I would not be arrested and charged. If I paid the R300 I could go home."
Milner said she was never told that she was signing and paying an admission of guilt fine. "Once I paid the R300, the policeman did not give me a receipt and simply told me to leave."
The SAPS took her admission of guilt document to the Randburg Magistrate's Court the following Monday, where her guilt was confirmed as "she had admitted to it" in terms of the document.
Judge Adams ordered that the Randburg Magistrate's Court proceedings in which her admission of guilt was accepted, should be provided.
The court will then probe the circumstances under which Milner signed the admission of guilt.
