Ex-journo held over cash van robberies
The wreck of a car that is suspected of having been used in a robbery at Tshwane University of Technology. The wreck of a car that is suspected of having been used in a robbery at Tshwane University of Technology.
A former radio journalist, believed to be behind a string of daring multimillion-rand daylight robberies across Gauteng over the past two years, was arrested in a sting operation on a farm outside Pretoria.
The 50-year-old man, who is to appear in the Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, was nabbed after members of the Hawks’ elite Tactical Operational Management Services and Protea Coin raided two Hekpoort farms on Wednesday.
The raid comes a month after a truck designed to look like a Protea Coin cash-in-transit van was used to steal nearly R1 million in student fees from the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT).
The robbery at the institution was carried out by men dressed up in Protea Coin uniforms, driving a “cash van” and following the exact procedures taken in collecting money from TUT.
Those behind the gang had allegedly been using the van, which was originally stolen in Diepkloof outside Joburg in 2010, to carry out 22 robberies across the province.
The robberies have seen the gang making off with a total of more than R5m in cash since it first began operating.
Police recovered the van, which had been cut up into pieces, along with money boxes and cash collection books, during the raids.
A source close to the investigation said that after the TUT robbery, police, along with Protea Coin members, had set up observation posts along strategic sections of highways across the province to try to spot the bogus cash van and the robbers.
“It took nearly a month and after recently receiving information we managed to track the van to the Hekpoort area. (Using) observation posts and helicopters, we were able to find out where it was operating from,” said the source.
Protea Coin chief operating officer Waal de Waal said on Wednesday that they, together with members of the Hawks, raided the farm, arresting the suspect and recovering pieces of the van.
“The van had been built up from the chassis of another vehicle which had been stolen in 2010.
“Using cannibalised material such as X-rays for windows, fake Protea Coin stickers and markings and a fridge door for the safe door, the gang designed a bogus cash-in-transit vehicle which to the untrained eye would look like a genuine cash vehicle. However, when one takes a proper look you can see from things such as the welds and the windscreen that the vehicle is fake,” he said.
De Waal said Protea Coin was the last cash-in-transit company to be targeted by the gang, which had caused chaos in the cash-in-transit industry over the past two years by mimicking various cash management companies to steal money.
Provincial police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Tshisikhawe Ndou said information indicated that the gang could be linked to 22 false collections in which more than R5m had been stolen from different businesses across Gauteng.
“When police arrived at the first farm, they found the canopy of a cash-in-transit van. While searching a house on the farm, police found receipt books for cash collection belonging to Protea Coin and two cash collection boxes from an unknown company.
“Investigations led the police to another plot where pieces of a fake cash-in-transit van were found. It seems at this stage that the suspect was trying to get rid of his instrument by dismantling the van.
“The suspects are alleged to have gone to the different shops and companies where cash was to be collected and collected the cash before the real cash vans could make their collections.
“Investigations have shown that the fake cash-in-transit van was stolen in 2010 in Diepkloof and was modified into a cash-in-transit van and allegedly used to collect money between 2010 up to now,” he said.
Ndou said that more arrests were expected soon. - Pretoria News