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Row over missing money
By Ilse de Lange
PRETORIA – A legal battle is brewing between Fidelity Guards and Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula.
At issue is R103 000 seized from suspects in a cash-in-transit robbery in 1997, which allegedly “disappeared” from police custody.
A civil claim, in which Fidelity Guards is claiming the amount, plus interest, from Nqakula has been set down for hearing in the Pretoria High Court next month.
The company – which had an agreement to transport cash for Shoprite in Umtata in the Eastern Cape, using JP Security – claimed in court papers more than R488 000 from Shoprite was stolen outside the premises of First National Bank in Umtata in April 1997.
The matter was reported to police, and police members soon afterwards arrested six suspects and seized just over R103 000 in cash.
Fidelity Guards claimed the money, supposed to have been marked and kept under lock and key, was in February 2003 “lost or stolen” while held by the Serious and Violent Crime Unit in Umtata.
They claimed the money was either stolen by police or lost as a direct result of police members who did not give the money a distinctive identity mark or keep it in custody, and let unauthorised persons have access to the money.
Fidelity Guards argued no criminal proceedings were instituted over the sum seized, or such proceedings were not begun in a reasonable time, causing JP Security and Shoprite to suffer damages.
The police said in court papers they had no knowledge of the money seized being stolen or lost and said it was in fact still legally in possession of the Umtata police station, where it was needed as exhibits for purposes of evidence in the still-pending criminal trial.
They said as far as they were aware, R51 500 of the money seized had already been paid to Fidelity’s representative, and Fidelity had in any event not given timeous notice of its intention to sue a state organ.
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