Suspects caught red-handed selling ‘fake’ taxi permits appears in Welkom court

Three suspects have made their appearance today at the Welkom Magistrate’s Court on charges of fraud.

Trio suspects between the ages of 38 and 49 were arrested last weekend on Friday, October 7 and Saturday, October in Welkom by the Hawks unit team based in Welkom.

Free State Hawks spokesperson, Christopher Singo, said the trio was arrested for selling fraudulent taxi permits.

“A number of people had been buying taxi permits from these suspects, which have generated an amount of R156 000,” says Singo.

He further added that, one of the suspect who was busted in possession of a fraudulent taxi permit identified the seller, which led to the arrest of this trio.

“Traffic officials were busy conducting their stop-and-search in Welkom. While busy with the search, they discovered that some taxi permits were fraudulent. They then conducted their own preliminary investigation, and it was discovered that those permits were stolen from the traffic department.”

Singo further said the trio arrested for these stolen permits are not employees of the traffic department, and at this point, it is unclear how they managed to get access to them.

“Investigations are continuing to establish whether this theft that happened in 2019 was a break-in at the traffic department, or whether there was an insider working with the suspects.