Windhoek — The latest urgent application by alleged habitual swindler, Adriaan Pienaar, failed on Tuesday in the Windhoek High Court because he was late.

This time Pienaar had cited as respondents the Ministry of Safety and Security, Nambahu and Uanivi Legal Practitioners and the Chief of the Namibian Police, Lieutenant-General Sebastian Ndeitunga.

Pienaar wanted the court to order the police chief to order his officers not to keep him in a small cell and also to order a probe into his situation by the Ombudsman. He further wanted some lawyers to make available to the court the correspondence between him and his creditors.

But Pienaar did not even get a chance to present his case as he turned up late for his own hearing, resulting in the case being struck from the roll.

Pienaar blamed police officers for this and declared to this reporter that he had everything ready this time and was "deliberately delayed" by the police. He showed this reporter his application, which contained various affidavits and reports from psychologists supporting his claim that he should not be kept in a small enclosure.

Pienaar claims to be suffering from a "serious anxiety disorder", in the form of claustrophobia that can cause his death within minutes.

Pienaar, who is accused of defrauding scores of Namibian businesspeople claims that his case is one of a civil rather than a criminal nature. He argued that he never obtained goods on credit under any false pretences and claims that he has already paid back some of the money he owes.

Pienaar (50), who is a South African citizen, was arrested on September 21 on several charges of fraud, relating to allegations that he had bought goods at a total cost of more than half a million Namibia dollars from various businesses in the south of Namibia, and then failed to pay for them.

He was free on bail on nine other fraud charges dating from 2009 at the time of his last arrest.