Former police sergeant’s case delayed

Cape Town - The corruption case against a former police sergeant was postponed in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court on Friday.

Legal aid attorney Hayley Lawrence was to have delivered her closing argument for former Sergeant Cornelius Wessels' acquittal, but was absent due to illness.

The case was postponed to 19 August.

Wessels has pleaded not guilty before magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg, in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court, to charges of corruption and dealing in or possession of dagga.

It is alleged that he accepted a R100 bribe to take a food parcel, with dagga hidden in it, to a prisoner in a holding cell while he was based at the Cape Town police station.

A police undercover operation was set up to trap Wessels, after he had been pointed out as the corrupt police official allegedly involved in smuggling dagga and other substances to prisoners in the holding cells.