Man sentenced for impersonating police officer
The man offered to pay a police constable R100 000 to prevent the investigation and arrest of two suspects.
A 43-year-old man will spend more than four years behind bars after he was charged and sentenced for impersonating a police officer. The Durban Specialised Commercial Crimes court sentenced Rapula Marole (43) to an effective four years and six months imprisonment after he was convicted of corruption and impersonating a police officer.
Commenting on the case, Natasha Kara, regional spokesperson for the Director of Public Prosecutions, KwaZulu-Natal said: “Marole was sentenced to six months imprisonment for impersonating a police official and six years imprisonment for corruption of a SAPS member -of which two years imprisonment was suspended for five years on conditions – hence, the effective sentence of 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.”
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Kara said the offences took place in Durban during November and December 2016.
“During this time, Marole contacted a detective constable, while pretending to be a colonel from the South African Police Service (SAPS) in Johannesburg. He offered to pay (the constable) R100 000 to discontinue and prevent the investigation and arrest of two suspects involved in a case that (the constable) was working on,” said Kara.
According to Kara, the constable arranged for an authorised police trap and Marole was arrested while handing over the money.
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“Prior to the trial, the defence 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 undercover 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,” she said.
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