The sudden disappearance last month of the wife of Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown had destroyed the good faith between the couple and the Scorpions, the Cape Town Magistrate's Court heard on Monday.

Scorpions senior counsel Bruce Morrison told the court: "She's not coming back."

Brown was making his second court appearance, before magistrate Vusi Mhlanga, since his arrest last Friday.

At Monday's hearing, Morrison, assisted by Tersia du Toit, said Brown's wife Susan had been under investigation as well, and that she was aware of it.

He said the investigation team had been happy to delay her arrest — unaware of her plans to abscond.

Brown's arrest last Friday was in connection with charges of theft, fraud and money laundering involving nearly R800 000 — relating to yet another company, Antheru, of which Frederick Heydenrych was the chief.

Morrison said the team had obtained a warrant on 3 April to arrest Brown as well as his wife, but had decided to delay execution of the warrant until the team had consulted fully with Heydenrych.

"At that point, we were quite happy with the situation."

He alleged that Brown had known for some time that his wife was to leave the country, and she had flown out on 25 April.

"By now, she's in Australia."

Requesting a seven-day remand, Morrison said the prosecution needed to confirm her flight plans, whether she was permanently in Australia, and the circumstances in which the couple's children were removed from school.

He told the court: "We need to find out if the school principal was notified of their departure.

"These are new facts — Brown has uprooted his entire family."

Morrison said defence attorney William Booth, in opposing the requested remand, had not informed the court that Brown had been sequestrated and had lost an attempt to appeal it.

He told the court: "Brown's wife has left the country, despite our delaying her arrest, which she knew about.

"We need to investigate whether Brown himself has defeated the ends of justice by assisting his wife to abscond, and the extent of it."

He said it also needed to be determined who made the flight bookings and who paid for the tickets.

If Brown himself were released on bail, he would interfere with the travel agents involved in his wife's flight out of the country, Morrison said.

For this reason, the State would also oppose any bail application launched on behalf of Brown, he said.

Judgement on the application for a seven-day remand is expected on Tuesday.

Sapa