The Pretoria Magistratesā Court, yesterday, 07 March 2024 sentenced Ryno du Plessis (35) to eight (8) years imprisonment, five (5) years suspended for five (5) years, and he will serve three years sentence. The sentence is subsequent to du Plessis being issued with a summons on 21 September 2023 appear in court on charges of money laundering, fraud, theft, corruption, extortion and impersonating a police officer.
It is alleged that on 21 September 2019, his wife informed the complainant that she was arrested for speeding on R21 road to Pretoria and she was taken to Lyttelton SAPS where she was told that she could be released with a bail of R1500. Indeed, the money was paid for bail at the station and she was released after the case had been registered.
On 23 September 2019 in the afternoon, the complaint received a text message on his phone purporting that it is a detective from Lyttelton SAPS and that the complainant must call him when he got the SMS. The complainant called the number back and the person on the other end introduced himself as W/O Jacobs investigating his wifeās speeding case. The āW/Oā indicated to the complainant that he spoke with the prosecutor and agreed that a fine of R4000 can be paid to solve the case.
The complainant agreed and inquired on how the payment should be made. The āW/O indicated that he will send the complainant send an account number via cellphone and within few minutes the text message was received by the complainant, written FNB Account. The complainant asked his wife to transfer the money. Within half an hour, the alleged W/O Jacobs called the complainant to confirm that proof of payment was received.
On 30 September 2019, the complainant received a call from another number. This time the person on the other end alleged that he was an investigating officer from the Hawks investigating a case of corruption against W/O Jacobs. The imposter alleged that he had found the docket of the case against his wife in Jacobsā car boot and that he (the complainant) is implicated in the corruption case for paying the police money. The imposter further alleged that he has evidence of payment in his possession. The imposter threatened the complainant with arrest, but can discuss the challenge he is facing. The imposter suggested that the complainant pay an amount of R15 000 and the case will disappear. The complainant refused and reported the matter to the Johannesburg based Serious Corruption Investigation. Thorough investigation was done which led to the suspect being traced and found at Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Facility. The suspect was identified as Rhyno Du Plessis and who was once employed with the Pretoria Tactical Response Team (TRT) of SAPS.
Du Plessisā sentence will run concurrently with the sentence he is serving presently in Kgosi Mampuru Prison of extortion.
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