Woman appears in court for theft at Hawks office

THE Northern Cape Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) has arrested a suspect in connection with a 2016 robbery where an disclosed amount of money went missing.

The suspect, 31-year-old, Madihlare Maria Tlailane, made a brief appearance in the Kimberley Magistrates’ Court yesterday morning.

This follows her arrest in Themba, Gauteng, last Thursday.

She will remain in custody until her formal bail application on Monday morning.

Provincial spokesperson for the Hawks, Captain Philani Nkwalase, believes that more arrests and the addition of extra suspects, regarding the incident, are not beyond the realm of possibility.

Tlailane’s arrest comes nearly 18 months after the break-in, when a number of suspects gained access to the Hawk’s offices before allegedly making off with the contents of two safes that were on the premises.

“A security guard on duty, was allegedly offered a spiked drink that left her unconscious, before suspects gained access to the building,” Nkwalase said yesterday.

“Two safes were opened with a grinder before an undisclosed amount of money was stolen. The security guard was left unharmed.”

Nkwalase explained that it appeared as if the suspects had decided to target the directorate’s Kimberley office following the arrest of a suspect in connection with an unrelated robbery at the G4S Security depot, a few weeks earlier. Suspects in this robbery are believed to have made off with an estimated R40 million.

“In the process of making this arrest (for the G4S incident), a few days prior to the robbery at our offices, we were able to retrieve about R1.6 million,” he added yesterday.

“While we cannot disclose exactly how much money was taken in the robbery on July 26, 2016, we can confirm that it was nowhere near this amount.”

“However, we do suspect that the culprits were trying to make off with a huge amount after reading the reports of the arrest.”

The investigation continues.