Cape Town - The case of the nine Oudtshoorn residents who are facing multiple charges related to their involvement in an illegal driving licence syndicate is set to be heard in Oudtshoorn Magistrate’s Court today.
The suspects were apprehended by police last week and made their first appearance in court on Monday on charges related to, but not limited to, contraventions of the Road Traffic Act, fraud, corruption and contravention of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (Poca), which amounts to money laundering.
However, the case was postponed to today by the magistrate to afford some of the accused the opportunity to acquire representation.
Meanwhile, the Western Cape Department of Transport and Public Works said that it supported the police’s efforts to bring to book persons involved in illegal dealings under the guise of serving the public.
Spokesperson Jandre Bakker said: “The Department of Transport and Public Works supports the SAPS whenever they need information and through our Compliance Monitoring Unit (CMU) support them. The prosecution often takes some time and is the responsibility of bodies such as the NPA.
“Our plea has always been to bodies like the NPA to take swift action and to ensure that anyone found guilty of these crimes that effectively put road users at risk faces the full might of the law.
“We will continue to support law enforcement agencies like the SAPS and the Hawks to clamp down on these operations,” Bakker said.
On Friday, police units including the Cyber Crimes Unit, Crime Intelligence and the provincial Commercial Crime Investigations, in conjunction with officials from the Department of Transport armed with search and seizure warrants, pounced on the Oudtshoorn driving licence offices as well as houses of identified suspects to execute the arrests.
Police spokesperson Malcolm Pojie said: “Initial reports of the arrests suggest that the arrestees were all part of an organised syndicate whereby learner and or driver’s licences were issued to applicants in return for gratification, using the local driving school.”