Cape Town – A police official, accused of corruptly requesting money for the release of a suspect arrested for assault, has appeared in a Cape Town court.
Harold Deon Jacobs, 41, based at the Kraaifontein police station, appeared in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Bellville before magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg on Thursday.
He was not asked to plead to a charge of corruptly requesting, and receiving, R2 000, and was warned to appear in court again on May 30.
According to the charge sheet, a suspect was arrested and locked in a cell at the Kraaifontein police station in December 2015, when an amount of R3 900 was removed from him and recorded in a special police register, in accordance with standing procedures.
Prosecutor Thersia du Toit-Smit alleges that Jacobs requested the R2 000 from him the next day, whilst taking the suspect's fingerprints.
The suspect agreed to the alleged bribe and Jacobs fetched the R3 900 from a safe, gave it back to the suspect but kept the R2 000 for himself.
However, a captain on duty at the charge office became suspicious and summoned Jacobs to his office, where the captain found Jacobs still in possession of the R2 000.
It is also normal procedure for bank notes taken from arrested suspects to be photocopied for security purposes.
The R2 000 found in Jacobs' possession were compared with the photocopied notes, and according to the State the serial numbers of the notes corresponded.