Durban – KwaZulu-Natal Acting Deputy Police Commissioner, Anthony Gopaul, has provided details on criminal cases linked to businessman, Stuart Scharnick.
Gopaul said police reviewed 29 cases across the province.
His name has been mentioned at the Madlanga Commission probing corruption and interference within SAPS and the broader criminal justice system.
According to Gopaul, inspections of the dockets revealed that 10 cases involved vehicle theft, while eight were carjackings.
Speaking at the Madlanga Commission, Crime Intelligence head, Dumisani Khumalo, linked Scharnick, who has a long-standing criminal record, to suspended Deputy National Police Commissioner, Shadrack Sibiya.
READ| Madlanga Commission in talks with Scharnick after Khumalo links him to Sibiya
Khumalo revealed that a vehicle Sibiya drove was registered under Scharnick.
He said that Scharnick has been linked to 34 cases in total and was found guilty of 18, 11 were withdrawn, and he was acquitted on five.
Gopaul is questioning the decision to consolidate case dockets related to him, after he received a suspended sentence for a crime committed in the province.
‘These dockets went to court, and members of the media, I cannot pronounce on legal positions and mandates undertaken and the process. I cannot prescribe or comment on it; it is something for the NPA to comment on as to how they arrived at that plea for so many of these cases—to consolidate all these 18 dockets, call it one case, give one sentence of five years suspended, and say there's a fine you can pay... I leave that to the NPA, but I'm not making a statement; that I'm leaving to the NPA.’
In addition to carjacking and vehicle theft, other cases linked to Scharnick include assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, pointing of a firearm, and possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition.