Police officers from the Hawk’s office in Bellville were key in arresting four suspects for allegedly stealing copper cables worth about R306 065 in the Bredasdorp area.
The suspects, aged between 41 and 50 years, were arrested last Thursday during a multi-disciplinary operation which consisted of the Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation team in Bellville together with Crime Intelligence Winelands Cluster, Gans Bay and Struisbaai detectives, Eskom and combined private investigators.
The suspects Carlo Cloete (50), ex-police officer Percival Jonathan Olckers (44), his wife Kay-Ann Olckers (42) and Inge Fortuin (41) appeared in court on Thursday, where the case was postponed for a bail application to 10 August.
All four accused in custody
The arrests come after information was received about theft, Zinzi Hani, a spokesperson of the Hawks, says.
“Upon operationalising the information received, rolls of Eskom copper cables were found in November 2021 respectively weighing 840 kg and 624 kg.”
The investigating team found the cables on one of the ex-employees of Eskom, Kay-Ann Olckers, who was a Senior Supervisor in charge of the Bredasdorp Customer Network Centre.
Her husband,Percival, who is a former police official, was also arrested.
“Preliminary investigation by the Hawks revealed that the copper cable was stolen from Eskom Customer Network Centre in Bredasdorp which was confirmed by Eskom, further investigation revealed that the suspects started selling the stolen copper cables to the local scrap yard from April 2021.”
