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A former Western Cape policeman has been jailed for an effective six years following his earlier conviction on charges of corruption and dealing in illicit cigarettes.
The National Prosecuting Authority says 50-year-old Jerome Hendricks, was sentenced in the Mitchells Plain Magistrate's Court.
He was arrested in February 2011in Beaufort West after he was found escorting a truck loaded with illicit cigarettes worth more than R495 000-00.
Hendricks was driving his personal vehicle at the time and was travelling from Pretoria to Cape Town when the truck was stopped and searched by police.
NPA spokesperson, Eric Ntabazalila, said Hendricks, who was attached to the Railway Police National Mobile Train Unit, was charged with having 40 000 illicit packets of Kingdom cigarettes, failure to produce proof of purchase, obstruction of justice, and corruption.
"The State told the court that Hendricks' criminal activities, had a potential loss of R 474 344 of tax not declared," he said.
Western Cape Director of Public Prosecutions, Advocate Nicolette Bell, applauded the prosecution team, SARS and SAPS for ensuring that corruption, especially by those tasked to uphold the rule of law, is rooted out and the perpetrators sent to jail.
