Former African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni brought to Parliament "a smell of rotten apples" and should be sentenced accordingly, the State told the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court on Monday.

"The motivation was greed, not need. He merely wanted to drive around in a very flashy car," prosecutor Gerda Ferreira said.

She was arguing in aggravation of sentence in Yengeni's trial.

Magistrate Bill Moyses convicted Yengeni of fraud last week after the MP pleaded guilty in terms of an agreement with the State.

In return, the State agreed not to prosecute him further on a corruption charge, on which he was acquitted.

The charges relate to a 47 percent discount he received on a luxury 4x4 Mercedes Benz in 1998.

He said he had convinced his co-accused, Michael Woerfel, to arrange the deal on a Mercedes Benz ML320. Woerfel was at the time the head of Daimler-Benz Aerospace AG's Pretoria representative office.

Daimler-Benz Aerospace was the manufacturer of the AT2000 - which was then being considered with two other light fighter aircraft as part of South Africa's arms acquisition process.

On Monday, Ferreira said Yengeni had consistently, deliberately and repeatedly violated the trust of Parliament, as well as the people of South Africa.

His senior position made him even more blameworthy.

He had been obliged to consider only the public interest but instead used his position to serve his own needs, she said.

Yengeni should expect that the sentence would reflect society's abhorrence in his crime.

Ferreira said Yengeni had not shown true remorse.

He had only entered into the plea agreement with the State when it became clear he would not be able to secure the money needed for further legal representation, she said.

Ferreira asked the court to use its discretion in imposing the sentence.

The case continues.

With acknowledgements to Sapa and iafrica.com