Wholly suspended jail term for corrupt licencing official who issued driving licence without testing applicant
|Published
A former driver’s licence examiner has been found guilty and sentenced by the eMalahleni Regional Court on charges of fraud and contravention of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act (Pocca).
Christoffel Fick, 64, was arrested after information was received and investigated by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) Mpumalanga-based serious corruption investigation unit.
“The information indicated that an official was soliciting gratification from applicants who were to be tested for driver’s licences,” said Mpumalanga spokesperson for the Hawks, Captain Dineo Lucy Sekgotodi.
“The investigation was carried forward and an undercover operation was authorised and executed. It was discovered that an applicant (of a driver’s licence) was never tested but was issued with a licence to drive a vehicle.”
The examiner was confronted, after issuing the driver’s licence to the applicant, and arrested.
A case docket was registered for further investigation.
Fick appeared in court on several occasions after he was released on bail.
“On (Wednesday) April 10 2024, Mr Fick was sentenced by the eMalahleni Regional Court as follows: 18 months imprisonment which is wholly suspended for five years on condition that he is not convicted on fraud during the period of suspension,” said Sekgotodi.
In addition, Fick was sentenced to three years of correctional supervision.
Meanwhile, the provincial head of the Hawks in Mpumalanga, Major General Nicholas Gerber has welcomed the sentence imposed on Fick.
Gerber issued “a stern warning” to law enforcement officials to perform their duties with integrity and honesty.
He emphasised that no one is above the law.
“As the Hawks, we shall investigate all priority crimes and bring perpetrators thereof to justice, without fear or favour,” said Gerber.
Last year, chief executive of the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), advocate Makhosini Msibi, led a raid at the Meyerton licencing centre in Gauteng, were several officials were arrested after being found with loads of cash in their pockets and bags.
“We are on an operation that has been ongoing for the past six months, we were observing what was going on and we have the intelligence that we gathered over the months. We are here today to execute the arrests of those that we identified to have participated in various criminal activities,” Msibi spoke to journalists during the raid.
Annually, Msibi said South Africa spends R146 billion in relation to road accidents - including for medical care for people involved in road crashes.
“What causes this? The people that we have on the road cannot drive. You can see lists here of people who are not here but they are going to get issued their driver’s licence while they are not here. Those people cannot even drive, but the next moment, they are going to be on the road and they are going to cause a lot of accidents.
“The second matter on this is greed. Our officials have permanent job employment but as you can see, normally at this station by 11 or by 10 o’clock in the morning, the officials or most of them have about R6,000 in the pocket, so you can imagine how much they have at the end of the day. This is tax-free, that money they are having on a daily basis,” he said.
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