Former high-ranking police officer Andre Edward Lincoln, formerly commander of the presidential investigative task unit was on Friday effectively jailed for nine years.
He was found guilty in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on 15 counts of fraud, one of drunken driving involving a serious collision and one of leaving the scene of an accident to escape blood tests.
Minutes after Lincoln was sentenced, his bail of R2 000 was extended pending a Cape High Court appeal against conviction and sentence.
He appeared before magistrate Awie Kotze who said fraud was a serious and ”ugly” crime and a ”cancer” that had to be eradicated.
Ten of the fraud charges involved the rental of a luxury Audi sedan, while another three involved informer’s fees that were falsely claimed.
A further fraud count involved his trip with alleged mafioso Vito Palazzolo to Angola where Lincoln was supposed to clear Palazzolo’s bad name with the Angolan authorities. The trip was fully paid for by Palazzolo, but despite this Lincoln claimed expenses from the SA Police Service.
Kotze said that white collar crime was highly prevalent and in this case committed by a high-ranking police officer in which Lincoln had held a position of extreme trust.
Kotze rejected claims by Lincoln during his trial that he had not benefited from any of the fraudulent transactions. Kotze said Lincoln had even obtained money fraudulently for sexual favours.
The magistrate said that prosecutor Andre Bouwer had referred the court to a number of similar cases dealt with by higher courts, including the Supreme Court of Appeal, that had involved corrupt police.
Kotze said the golden thread in all these cases was that the corruption had been perpetrated by policemen. In all cases, the policemen had been jailed, he said.
On the drunken driving charge there was no doubt that society strongly disapproved of what Lincoln had done. Drunken driving and leaving the scene of a collision by a high-ranking police officer made it a very serious offences, the magistrate said.
He said the damage to the innocent motorist’s car was extensive and if it had not happened in the early hours of the morning, someone may well have been killed.
Defence advocate Don Jacobs urged the court to impose a sentence involving correctional supervision (house arrest) but Kotze said the fact that the frauds were committed by a high-ranking police officer, and the multiple charges ruled out any possibility of this.
The magistrate ordered Lincoln to repay the amounts of R6 550, R12 744, R2 099, R74 000 and R20 504 as compensation to the police for the fraud charges, as well as damage paid out by the police to the motorist whose car was damaged in the collision. – Sapa