Drug accused Andrew Turnbull, an ex-East Londoner, was given bail despite a warrant of arrest being issued.
A bungle by the National Prosecuting Authority and the Beacon Bay police saw Turnbull granted R5,000 bail by the Randburg magistrate's court on Wednesday, despite a warrant of arrest issued against him in June.
The Beacon Bay police have been looking for Turnbull since June 27 for allegedly pointing a firearm at East Londoner Anthony Traub, 51, in April.
An agitated Traub told the Dispatch that he had warned the Beacon Bay police on Wednesday – the a day of the bail hearing – to contact Randburg police so that Turnbull would be denied bail.
“The investigating officer, a constable, said to me, ‘Sir relax, the Randburg police will pick up that we are looking for him from the system. Turnbull won’t get bail’ – now look at what has happened.”
On Monday, East London police spokesperson Warrant Officer Hazel Mqala said the Beacon Bay police only learned about Turnbull’s whereabouts later on social media.
“When Beacon Bay heard via social media that he [Turnbull] was arrested, they immediately contacted the station concerned only to find out he was already released on bail,” the police spokesperson said.
“When a person is arrested in a particular town or city the station has access to CAS [criminal recording system] and can see if there is a warrant or prior cases. They [Beacon Bay police] have since communicated with his attorney who is going to assist in bringing the suspect in. The warrant of arrest was issued on 2018-06-27. Until now, the whereabouts of the suspect was unknown.”
In a WhatsApp message to the Dispatch, NPA spokesperson Phindi Louw said: “The NPA was not aware of the warrant of arrest at the time when the bail application was heard. The complainant in one of the matters against him brought this information to our attention yesterday [Thursday].”
“During the bail hearing, the prosecutor raised pending matters against the accused in court, matters which were denied by the accused and this is on record.”
Turnbull is due to appear again on October 30.
On Monday night the Dispatch asked Turnbull’s attorney Henry van Breda for a response. He wrote back that he would only comment “on the true facts” once the Dispatch had furnished him with a “transcript” of Wednesday’s bail proceedings.
Asked if Turnball would hand himself over, van Breda could only say: “my conversations with the police were done in confidentiality”...