PRETORIA – The Hawks have lived by their words of rooting out corruption from within their ranks when they arrested three of their members for alleged theft at Welkom, Free State on Tuesday.

A 59-year-old captain and two constables aged 37 and 39, all stationed at Thabong DPCI, allegedly stole R250 000 from a complainant in August this year. The trio went to a house of the complainant soon after their other colleagues had executed a search warrant but failed to find anything incriminating the complainant.

When these three arrived at the house they demanded to search the vehicle without a search warrant and they allegedly found the cash on the door panel. The officers then demanded to leave with the money without counting it but the complainant refused until they counted the money and left with it inside a sealed exhibit bag.

Soon after it was discovered that no police station had a record of R250 000 booked in by the officers, an investigation was launched and subsequently the three officers were arrested for theft and corruption. The trio will appear before the Welkom Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.