A Cape cop and an accomplice are to stand trial for allegedly hijacking a man and trying to extort money from him.
|||Cape Town - A Cape Town police officer and an accomplice are to stand trial for allegedly hijacking a man and trying to extort money from him.
Constable Theodore Dreyer, who was based at Cape Town Central Police Station, has been suspended without pay since his arrest last year.
Its is the State’s case that Dreyer, 27, of Blackheath, and his co-accused, Yusuf Soeker, 44, of Bo-Kaap, hijacked a car, threatened the driver with a knife and stole R800 from him before driving off in the stolen car on October 10 last year.
The two were arrested shortly afterwards and have been charged with aggravated robbery, theft of a motor vehicle, kidnapping, theft and extortion.
Prosecutor Natalie Johnson said on Tuesday that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had decided to proceed with the case against the men and that the matter was ready to go to trial.
Johnson said the case could be moved to the Cape Town Regional Court where the men were expected to plead to the charges.
Dreyer said in his bail affidavit last year that he would plead not guilty to the charges against him.
According to court documents, Dreyer had been a police officer for eight years and lived with his parents. He also revealed that he had no outstanding warrants for his arrest but had one pending case against him.
The pending case of theft was also being heard in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court.
Soeker, however, had no criminal record. He was married and had a daughter.
Last year, the prosecution opposed bail for the men saying that they were charged with a Schedule Six offence – the category in which the most serious crimes fall.
The men would then have to show exceptional circumstances to justify their release on bail.
The fact that a knife was used to commit the crime, that Dreyer was a police officer and that he had a pending case counted against them.
But magistrate Zwelindumile Sogwagwa found in November that the men showed exceptional circumstances and fixed bail at R1 000 each.
On Tuesday, Paul Young, for the accused, did not object to the case being postponed.
Dreyer and Soeker’s bail was extended and they are due back in court on August 1.
jade.otto@inl.co.za
Cape Argus