Cape Town - What started out as an investigation into nuisance posters led the City of Cape Town’s metro police tactical response unit to a much bigger forgery operation, the city said on Sunday.
The unit stumbled upon an apparent counterfeit operation at an address in Bellville’s central business district on Thursday, mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith said.
The officers moved in on the premises to investigate a tip-off from the local ward councillor and the Voortrekker Road Central Improvement District (VRCID) who had been trying to track down the source of stickers advertising the illegal termination of pregnancies, which had become a problem in the Bellville area, he said.
A search of the premises revealed a number of industrial printers, scanners, laptops, and other digital equipment. Officers also found counterfeit currency from a number of countries, fake passports, identity documents, asylum permits, fake licence documents, vehicle registration discs, and university and college degrees - notably from the University of the Western Cape.
Three suspects - two men aged 40 and 45, and a 41-year-old woman - were arrested on charges of fraud, forgery and uttering, and possession of suspected stolen property.
When a person knowingly published or put into circulation any forged or altered financial document, legal document, or other text with the intent to misrepresent it as true and defraud others, it amounted to uttering a forged instrument, Smith said.
“This is a massive bust and we will be working closely with the South African Police Service, particularly in respect of the fraudulent driving licences and vehicle registration discs that were found on the premises.
“I want to commend everyone involved for their sterling work. Once again we have a brilliant example of the results that are possible through effective public-private partnerships.
“This started with the local ward councillor and the VRCID investigating what is essentially a nuisance complaint and in the end it uncovered something much bigger. There’s no better example of the effectiveness of ‘broken windows’ policing than this,” Smith said.
African News Agency