Detective on warning after court hearing
A SEASONED Port Elizabeth detective, arrested at the weekend after suspected gangsters used his assigned police vehicle to allegedly commit a robbery, has been released on warning.
Detective-Sergeant Paul Roelofse appeared in the St Albans Prison Court yesterday, where the case against him was postponed to September 19 for further investigation.
Roelofse, 37, was allegedly heavily inebriated when he was nabbed at a shebeen in Bethelsdorp in the city’s northern areas early on Saturday.
He was also allegedly in the presence of members of the notorious Spotbouers gang.
After allegedly failing to book his vehicle back in at the Kabega Park police station on Friday afternoon, it was reportedly used in the commission of an offence.
According to police, four women were robbed of their handbags and other belongings at a traffic light in Motherwell on Friday evening.
Roelofse faces a provisional charge of use of a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent.
An internal disciplinary probe will now run concurrently with the criminal case.
The once highly regarded policeman made a name for himself in 2012 following the arrest and successful prosecution of Air Force Sergeant Frederick Gordon, who tortured and abused his wife, Avril, over several months.