In his heyday as a property magnate and scrap metal dealer‚ Gerhard Kruger drove a Porsche 930 Turbo and a De Tomaso Pantera‚ and wined and dined at the best food outlets.

But now he says he is in such dire straits that he has removed two of his four gold teeth with pliers and sold them for cash.

Kruger says it has taken more than 15 years for him to prove in the Durban High Court that he was maliciously arrested‚ charged and detained for eight days at Westville Prison in May 2002.

The charges relating to the theft of copper cables‚ and the possession of more than 1‚000 rounds of ammunition‚ an AK47 and a grenade‚ were withdrawn about a year after he was arrested.

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