Missing funds mystery in cop payments case

BUSINESSMAN Salim Dawjee could not afford the payments he made to senior Western Cape police officials‚ allegedly in return for favours‚ according to an audit of his bank accounts.

The commander of the financial investigative unit at the Hawks‚ Wynand Wessels‚ who conducted the audit‚ said Dawjee had experienced a R5-million shortfall for the period for which he was audited – between October 2011 and November 2013.

According to Wessels‚ Dawjee had 13 active personal and business accounts at the time of the audit‚ but only declared four of them to the South African Revenue Service.

Wessels was testifying yesterday in the Cape Town High Court‚ where Dawjee is accused of making financial contributions to the tune of R1.6-million to former Western Cape police commissioner Arno Lamoer and three of his brigadiers – for which he allegedly received preferential treatment.

The payments were made for car rentals‚ airline tickets‚ holidays and swimming pool maintenance‚ among other things.

All five are facing 109 charges of corruption‚ racketeering and money laundering. They have pleaded not guilty to the charges. Wessels conducted lifestyle audits of the accused over the same period and found they were all living beyond their means.

He said he could only prove the links between the payments and the recipients after receiving further information during his investigation.

“There is no clear explanation why Towbars Cape [one of Dawjee’s companies] would pay for flights or holidays,” Wessels said.

“They also paid for car rental companies but it was not clear for whose use. We had to get extra information,” he said.

The same lack of a paper trail appeared in Lamoer’s claims that Dawjee had paid one of his clothing accounts using a credit card, in exchange for cash.

Wessels said that at the time of the alleged transaction‚ Lamoer did not have enough funds available to him to have that amount of cash.

Judge Rosheni Allie postponed the case until this afternoon.