Robbery accused policeman, Jacobus Groenewald, admitted on Tuesday he had changed the licence plates of the SAPS vehicle he had driven to a Llandudno home to allegedly carry out a raid.
Groenewald said this was because he did not want to become a “target” after the raid.
Groenewald had submitted to the court in his bail application proceedings that a group of officers were acting on information about two suspects linked to cybercrimes when they carried out the alleged bust in the luxury neighbourhood last month.
Groenewald, 44, appeared in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court alongside three co-accused, Bradley Minnaar, 28, Mthuthuzeli Mafanya, 33 and Bathanwa Soldati, 38, who were arrested on charges of robbery with aggravating circumstances and theft.
Groenewald and his co-accused allegedly took items to the value of R28 million on September 14 at about 1.35am when the alleged robbery occurred at the premises of a foreign national in Sunset Avenue.
The officers were arrested after an investigation by the Western Cape Anti-Corruption Unit.
Probed during cross-examination by State prosecutor Lukhanyo Langeni on Tuesday, it emerged that Groenewald had swapped the number plates of his police vehicle. Langeni asked Groenewald if it was “normal for police officers to change their vehicle’s number plates” when conducting searches.
“No, it is not,” said Groenewald. Groenewald explained that he had stuck a piece of a number plate to the front and back of the police vehicle with double-sided tape.
Asked for his reasoning, Groenewald said: “Because that vehicle stands at my house, in my yard, every day and the police station ... We wanted to make a bust that day and we wanted to have these people bust in our name. But we also didn’t want to become a target.”
Asked why, as a senior-ranking officer, he did not go to Hout Bay police station to get assistance, he responded that the station “doesn’t have enough vehicles”.
Langeni put it to Groenewald that a State witness would testify that the cut-up licence plate, which Groenewald had at his home, was registered to police vehicles from somewhere in the Western Cape.
Langeni also probed Groenewald on the information provided in a statement by one of the private security officers who arrived at the Llandudno home, that he had introduced himself as “Sergeant Beukes”.
Groenewald denied this information and submitted that he was identifiable by his police identity badge on his chest.
Further information emerged in court that while outside his jurisdiction, acting on information relayed to him earlier the evening by an informant, Groenewald had not during this time applied for a search warrant or warrant of arrest, saying they were not there to “arrest but just acted on information about the locally and internationally-sought” criminals.
Groenewald further confirmed that the people they had arrested – two men and a woman – had their wrists bound with cable ties that were not police issued. Groenewald said his handcuffs were stolen from his vehicle and they did not have keys to the only other set of handcuffs among the officers.
On the first day of his testimony, Groenewald said they came across empty Rolex, Cartier and jewellery boxes and when he probed one of the suspects about the empty boxes, he was told “it was to impress the ladies”.
Bail hearing proceedings will continue on Wednesday.
Cape Times