The Gqeberha firearms dealer who faces a litany of charges relating to the Firearms Control Act, was denied bail in the Magistrates Court on Wednesday and will remain behind bars pending the finalisation of her trial.
The charges against Karen Webb, 40, include theft, conspiracy to smuggle firearms, fraud, the unlicensed trading of firearms, providing firearms and ammunition to persons who are not allowed to possess them, and defeating the ends of justice.
Her arrest on 8 February forms part of an ongoing police investigation into how firearms got into the possession of gangsters in the city's northern areas and other provinces.
Besides 76 firearms that had been positively linked to crimes in the city's northern areas and as far as the Western Cape and Gauteng, evidence was led that suggests that 437 of the 900 firearms registered on Webbs Arms are unaccounted for.
The theft charge relates to ten 9mm Glock pistols that went missing from the Aquila Arms’ stock while the cache was stored at her premises.
Magistrate Tobile Bara said, in coming to a finding, the evidence presented in Webb's affidavit during the bail application, was weighed against that of the investigating officer, Warrant Officer Juan Botha.
Botha's affidavit, which contained damning allegations against Webb, was previously read into the court record by State Advocate Liezel Landman.
Also read: IO comes guns blazing at Karen Webb bail hearing
Bara said that contrary to the argument by the defence that the State's case was weak, and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, he was of the view that Webb's presumption of innocence was outweighed by the existence of a strong prima facie case by the State.
He found that Webb was likely to interfere with or influence state witnesses and meddle with the investigation by destroying or influencing witnesses.
The allegation that Webb had transported 500 firearms to Sedgefield without following proper regulations and procedures, and the cache of guns that were linked to violent crimes, were one of the reasons that led Bara to find that her actions endangered public safety.
He noted that she did not open any criminal cases for the loss of the weapons (linked to criminal activities) and she did not offer any explanation on how the guns reached the said criminal destinations.
Webb's refusal to cooperate with the investigating officer by handing over her cell phone and providing him with a register of the firearms kept in her possession also counted against her.
"The accused has access to the firearms control system and evidence before the court shows she is capable of manipulating the system.
"There are sufficient grounds to find that she will go to the extreme to interfere with the state's investigation, and consider destroying evidence," said Bara.
During her bail application, Webb said that Evans had given her the ten Glock firearms in lieu of payment for storing his weapons at her premises, but failed to convince the bail court that this was indeed the case.
Bara noted with concern that there was no agreement between Webb and Evans on how much he would be charged for storage fees.
He pointed out that the document that Webb provided to the court to support her claim that the Glocks had been transferred onto her name was not valid.
"The document submitted purporting that the ten Glocks were transferred from Evans to Webb has been used to entice the court to believe that it's a real and binding document.
"However, it is clear that the document was not even signed and stamped by relevant officials, as per the legal requirements."
Bara found it "strange" that Webb did not respond to Botha's allegations that two of the ten Glocks in question had in fact already belonged to her and not Evans.
Evans said he could not have signed over the ownership of the Glocks to Webb, because he had sold the guns to Magnum Alarms, prior to storing it at her shop.
The court had taken into account that Webb has no pending cases, no history of committing a Schedule 1 offence, as well as her personal circumstances.
The case was postponed to 25 April for further investigation.
