Foreign national sentenced for perjury after fake hijacking claim
A foreign national’s false hijacking claim has led to a serious crackdown by Douglasdale police, who wish to send a strong message against false crime reports that strain local resources.
A foreign national, who falsely reported a motorbike hijacking, has been sentenced to one-year in prison and will be deported following his conviction, a result hailed by Douglasdale police as a breakthrough in curbing false crime reports that waste critical investigative resources.
The case began in early May when the man walked into the Douglasdale SAPS client service centre and claimed he had been hijacked in the area.
Officers immediately took his statement, but not without warning him of the consequences of false reporting, this according to Brigadier Veeshani Arikum, Douglasdale Station Commander, in an interview with Fourways Review.
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“My members took down the statement and explained to him that if you lie, it is perjury and that you can be arrested. They did their due diligence and found out that the alleged victim had lied. A case of perjury was then opened against him.”
The suspect was arrested and appeared in court. After several postponements, the matter resumed between late June and early July, where he was found guilty. Arikum said the suspect received a sentence of 12 months in prison and will be deported thereafter.
“It’s not the first case we’ve had like this,” she said, “but we are really happy with the member who led this investigation. It’s a good conviction, and I believe that if people read articles like this in the community newspapers, it will deter other people from opening false cases.”
According to Arikum, the issue of false hijacking reports, especially involving foreign nationals, is becoming a tedious challenge for the station.
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She said that often foreign nationals cannot legally own vehicles in South Africa, leading to alternative arrangements that are sometimes exploited.
“We’ve got South Africans who are buying motorbikes in bulk and leasing them out to foreigners. They pay a rental fee on the bike, but sometimes the income is too small. So, they claim the bike was hijacked. The owner submits an insurance claim, and the vehicle ends up over the border. Most of our motorbikes go to Mozambique or Zimbabwe.”
When asked how officers discovered the truth in this particular case, Arikum credited the use of VumaCam’s licence plate recognition (LPR) cameras, a key tool in local policing. “If someone says they were hijacked in a certain area, and we can’t see that bike on our cameras at the right time, or if there’s an obvious pattern missing, that’s a red flag. We use the cameras to track movement. When we confront them, they often confess.”
Arikum stressed that perjury is a serious crime with far-reaching consequences. “It’s regarded as lying under oath. You waste the resources of the police, the courts, and it can even endanger others. False hijackings, false kidnappings, these things pull our resources away from real emergencies.”
She also expressed concern about the perception such cases create. “False cases give the impression that crime in South Africa is higher than it actually is. That damages public trust and wastes time we could be using to help genuine victims.”
While the suspect’s identity has not been disclosed, police confirmed he will serve his sentence in South Africa before deportation proceedings begin.
“People must know that we do take action,” concluded Arikum. “If you lie about a crime, we will investigate and you will face the consequences.”
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