Asset forfeiture order granted against former Hawks captain and police partner
A court in Cape Town granted an asset forfeiture order on Tuesday against a former Hawks captain who was jailed last year for 10 years for extortion, theft and defeating the administration of justice.
Siyaza Patrick Siyale, 56, formerly attached to the Commercial Crime Unit in Cape Town, was jailed for six years on the extortion charge, two years for theft and two years for defeating the administration of justice.
At the time he was sentenced, he appeared in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court before Magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg, who ruled that the three sentences would not run concurrently.
With him in the dock on Tuesday was his partner in commercial crime investigations, Wilfred Mentoor, 30, a detective constable, who was effectively jailed for eight months only after being found guilty of theft and defeating the administration of justice.
The court on Tuesday granted an asset forfeiture order for R400 and a camera worth several thousand rand which the two had taken from the victim of a scam.
The case arose from the involvement of victim Nicodemus Solly Moeng in a so-called black dollar scam in August 2011.
At the time, Moeng was the president of the French-South Africa Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Moeng had been duped into parting with R300,000 for a “lucrative investment” by a Congolese man claiming to be an investor.
Moeng was to receive four lock-up safes, supposedly filled with US dollars. The safes, in fact, contained black pieces of paper cut to the size of US dollars.
Moeng received the safes but on his way home with them was intercepted by Siyale and Mentoor who claimed to be investigating the scam.
They accused Moeng of involvement and Siyale demanded R500 not to arrest him.
At Moeng’s home they confiscated the safes and a camera worth R4,400.
In addition, Siyale removed R400 from Moeng’s wallet to “split” with Mentoor.
Moeng reported the R500 demand and Siyale was arrested later when he accepted the R500 in a police trap.
At prosecutor Denzyl Combrink’s request, the court granted the asset forfeiture order against Siyale for his R200 share of the stolen R400.
Against Mentoor, the order was for his share of the stolen R400, as well as the R4,400 value of the camera.
The two orders are to be forwarded to the Asset Forfeiture Unit itself for execution.