Pretoria – The integrity of the Hawks members was once again proved to be beyond reproach when an investigating officer arrested two men shortly after they handed to him R400 000 in cold, hard cash so that he could destroy a case of three of their friends who were arrested for the theft of R1.5 million worth of coffee beans in Durban last year.
On Thursday two men approached the Hawks who were working with the Forensic Laboratory members in Pietermaritzburg and negotiated a deal aimed at destroying the case against George Charalambus (53), Selvanathan Chetty (43) and Richard Seaman (47) who were arrested in November 2015.
One of the suspects who attempted to bribe the Hawks was Charalambus, a business owner in the area who was out on a R10 000 bail which was granted to him and his three accomplices by the Durban Magistrate’s Court.
Instead of returning to court on 7 April 2016, Charalambus fast forwarded his time to face the courts and will be in the dock today (Friday) at the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate’s Court together with another 50-year-old man for bribing a police officer.
