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Former Cape top cop back in the dock on charges of corruption

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Businessman Salim Dawjee likely used cash and cheque deposits to conceal payments made to former provincial police commissioner Arno Lamoer‚ the Cape Town High Court heard on Tuesday.

The two men and three other co-accused — Kolin and Sharon Govender and Darius van der Ross — are facing 109 charges of corruption‚ money laundering and racketeering.

During cross-examination by Lamoer’s lawyer. Grant Smith‚ state witness Wynand Wessels told the court that cash and cheque deposits of amounts from R2‚000 to R15‚000 from Dawjee to Lamoer were “likely done to conceal the transactions”.

Wessels‚ who heads the Western Cape Hawks financial investigative unit and conducted lifestyle audits on all of the accused‚ said that electronic payments would have made it easier to identify transactions between Dawjee and Lamoer.

Last week Wessels told the court that as a result of his investigation‚ he had found that Lamoer had received over R75‚000 in payment from Dawjee and his companies.

Lamoer and his former brigadiers are believed to have received R1.6-million in payments from Dawjee over a two year period in exchange for “preferential treatment” and “favours”.

Payments included cash and cheque deposits‚ as well as car hire‚ holidays and clothing accounts. In some cases the beneficiaries were Lamoer’s immediate family.

Wessels said that in corruption cases “transactions with [the accused] immediate family are [investigated in] the same [manner] as transactions with [the accused]”.

 Dawjee’s companies — Towbars Cape and Towbars King — have also come under the spotlight for “over quoting” and “over charging” the police for equipment supplied for SAPS vehicles. But Wessels said that he found no evidence of Lamoer and his brigadiers benefiting financially from those transactions.

Defence lawyer for Van der Ross began his cross examination of Wessels. The trial continues.

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