bogus cop Gauteng traffic cop R100 Bribe

Photo: Road Traffic Management Corporation / Twitter

Bogus cop told prosecutors he was ‘under cover agent’

A conman pretending to be an under-cover cop was often seen masquerading as a police captain in uniform at a local police station.

bogus cop Gauteng traffic cop R100 Bribe

Photo: Road Traffic Management Corporation / Twitter

A man who brazenly impersonated a police officer and told state prosecutors that he was an ‘undercover agent’ has been sentenced to jail for his bogus cop stunt after he was convicted of his crimes in the Durban Specialised Commercial Crimes.

National Prosecuting Authority regional spokesperson Natasha Kara said that the man, Rapula Kenneth Marole, 43, had been tried in the Durban Specialised Commercial Crimes court where he was convicted of charges of corruption and impersonating a police officer. He committed the crimes as a bogus cop in Durban during November and December in 2016.

“During this time, Marole contacted a detective constable Mhlangu, while pretending to be a colonel from the South African Police Service (SAPS) in Johannesburg. He offered to pay Mhlangu R100 000 to discontinue and prevent the investigation and arrest of two suspects involved in a case that Mhlangu was working on,” Kara said.

Mhlangu then arranged for an authorised police trap to catch the bogus cop and Marole was arrested whilst handing over the money to him.

Prior to the trial, the defence had advised that Marole was an undercover agent and that he should not be prosecuted. However, Senior State Advocate Wendy O’ Brien was never contacted by a handler. 

“Advocate O Brien eventually obtained confirmation that Marole was not an under-cover agent. It later turned out that Marole had been seen on a number of occasions, masquerading as a police captain in uniform at a police station in Gauteng,” Kara said.

Marole was sentenced to six months imprisonment for impersonating a police official and six years imprisonment, of which two years imprisonment was suspended for five years on conditions, for corruption of an SAPS member. The effective sentence is four years and six months imprisonment. 

“He was declared unfit to possess a firearm and the court ordered that he hand over his firearm and permits,” Kara said.

Advocate Nazreena Sayed from the Asset Forfeiture Unit assisted Advocate O’ Brien by bringing a Section 18 forfeiture application where the R100 000 bribe money for the bogus cop was forfeited to the Criminal Asset Recovery Account (CARA).