Cape Town - Two senior State advocates are to prosecute suspended police captain Paul Scheepers when he goes on trial in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Bellville on multiple fraud charges.
After numerous preliminary appearances in the Bellville District Court, Scheepers made his second appearance on Tuesday in the commercial crime court, before magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg.
Scheepers, 44, faces 23 fraud charges, as well as one alleged contravention of the Private Security Industry Act, one violation of the Regulation of Interception of Communications Act and one relating to the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (Poca).
At Tuesday’s proceedings, senior State advocate Max Orban scheduled a pre-trial conference for September 27.
He told the court that he and senior State advocate Thersia du Toit-Smit would prosecute the case as a team.
Defence attorney John Riley is to represent Scheepers.
Scheepers, who is out on R20 000 bail, was attached to the police’s Crime Intelligence Unit, but also ran his own private detective agency, Eagle Eye Solutions Technology.
Cellphone service providers such as MTN and Vodacom may not provide the police with the records of cellphone calls made and received, for criminal investigations, without a subpoena, signed by a senior magistrate and the prosecuting authorities.
In order to obtain a subpoena, an investigating official has to submit a sworn affidavit, giving details of the particular investigation, the numbers of the cellphones involved and the reason the cellphone records were required.
It is alleged that Scheepers fraudulently included the numbers of cellphones under private investigation by his own detective agency.
African News Agency