New trial for raided ex-cop captain
FORMER crime intelligence police captain Paul Scheepers made a brief appearance in the Bellville Commercial Crimes Court yesterday after his previous legal counsel quit over lack of finances.
His trial is scheduled to start on May 24, 2017 – more than two years after he was first arrested and his private and police offices raided by the police’s anti-corruption unit.
Scheepers is accused of fraud, perjury and breaches of the Electronic Communications Act.
Yesterday in court, attorney Steven Barker confirmed that he had received instructions from Scheepers, and that his financial issues had been resolved.
In September, ahead of his police disciplinary hearing, Scheepers resigned from the SAPS. He had run a private investigation agency without permission from his superiors despite rule changes which prohibited such actions.
The State claims that Scheepers illegally obtained Section 205 warrants from a Bellville magistrate which allowed him to access cellphone records. They say he used these in his capacity as a private investigator.
He is also accused of illegally importing a “grabber” device which can only be used by the country’s intelligence services.
Last year Scheepers, seeking the return of his electronic equipment in the Western Cape High Court, alleged that a high-ranking police officer was regularly meeting up with gang bosses and facilitating their drug trade.
Premier Helen Zille latched on to the allegations, hinting that Scheepers’s claims could prove that the police were deliberately destabilising the Western Cape.
Scheepers lost his high court application, and the seized equipment was ceded to the State. It will in all likelihood be used as evidence in his criminal trial.
Scheepers had obtained a tender to install “debugging” software for the Western Cape executive, including Zille, in May 2010. She claimed she did not know him.