Former volunteer commissioner Yiannakis Yiannaki on Monday said he is “in the final stages” of finding a new lawyer as he continues to fight accusations that he forged his high school diploma and university degree, among other documents.

He represented himself in court on Monday, with judge Nicole Gregoriou and prosecution lawyer Theodora Papakyriakou agreeing that the next four hearings will take place on March 24, March 28, April 2 and April 8.

At those hearings, a police expert and forensic analyst who specialises in electronic evidence Stefanos Apetos will testify for the prosecution.

Yiannaki plead not guilty to eight counts of forgery in 2022, having resigned from the role a year earlier amid a media storm over the alleged crimes.

The case had drawn intense social media scrutiny, with pictures of crudely doctored documents doing the rounds. One image showed high school diploma scores for modern Greek and for English reading “thirteen” in words, but with the figure next to it having been changed to “19” in pen.

In 2022, then police spokesman Christos Andreou had said that the San Diego State University, the university in the United States at which Yiannaki had claimed to have studied, said it had no knowledge of or ever even heard of him.

He said that the police had received oral confirmation from the university in question that Yiannaki never graduated from the institution.

“The case is essentially concluded but we are waiting for this piece of evidence… once we receive it, we can assess which offences may have been committed,” he said.

A picture of his university degree, a bachelor’s in civil engineering issued in 1992, had circulated, with the certificate bearing the signatures of four officials, one of whom is Edmund Gerald Brown Jr, cited as California governor.

However, Brown was not California governor in 1992, having served between 1975 and 1983 and then between 2011 and 2019.

Apparent tampering with Yiannaki’s high school diploma and his university degree, was discovered by the auditor-general of the day Odysseas Michaelides after he received an anonymous complaint about the issue.

During the case so far, Yiannaki has been through two lawyers, with Yiannis Polychronis having walked out in November last year following a warning from judge Gregoriou about contempt of court, and his successor Thanasis Korfiotis asked to withdraw from the case citing “ongoing disagreements” between himself and his client.

It had initially been intended that he would have a new lawyer in place by Monday, but he now effectively has 14 days to do so lest he continue to defend himself in court when Apetos takes the stand.