An Eastern Cape police officer, who lost his job five years ago after he was arrested for allegedly accepting a R100 bribe from a King William’s Town motorist in May 2013, has been exonerated by the local magistrate’s court which cleared him of any wrongdoing last week.
Corruption charges against Warrant-Officer Simon Quilie, who at the time of his dismissal from police service in 2014, had 25 years of service, were withdrawn after he was found not guilty on Friday.
A relieved Quilie is now considering suing the state for wrongful arrest and prosecution, which he said had led to him losing his police badge and his livelihood.
He is also in the process, he said on Tuesday, of instituting a legal damages claim against his former employer, the SA Police Services, for what he claimed was his unfair dismissal.
Quilie, who worked at the King police station’s crime prevention unit was fired after an internal disciplinary hearing in 2014 found him guilty of a corrupt practice.
This happened was while the corruption criminal case continued in court for almost six years.
He was arrested, together with two police reservists, in April 2013 after allegations that they had solicited a R100 bribe from a woman motorist who had apparently violated a traffic rule in the King suburb of Schornville.
At the time police said the officers were on patrol in the area when they stopped and questioned the woman motorist.
She was allegedly instructed to drive to the King police station accompanied by one of the reservists.
However the woman drove in the direction of the Spar Supermarket in the CBD, where she dropped the reservist police officer off and drove away.
The reservist, police said in reports at the time, was later picked up by his two colleagues who had been tailing the car. The unidentified woman later went to the police station where she reported a case of corruption.
They were arrested and spent an entire weekend in jail before being released on warning four days later.
On February 2 2016, one of the reservists, Constable Brandon Niekerk, pleaded guilty to the crime and was sentenced to a nine-month prison term, suspended for five years.
A few months later, charges against another reservists, Freddie Graham Weimers, were withdrawn by the NPA, leaving Quilie to face the rap all alone in the dock.
NPA spokesman Tsepo Ndwalaza on Wednesday confirmed that charges Quilie was found not guilty and acquitted.
Ndwalaza said: “This is because the state witnesses contradicted each other on facts as to who gave the instruction to demand money from the complainant. They also contradicted each other on who exactly solicited and accepted the money from the complainant.”
Speaking to the Dispatch on Tuesday, Quilie said this ordeal had negatively affected him and his family's wellbeing.
It has been a very traumatic experience for me in the past five years. I lost everything as a result of this, including my job and house which was worth just over a R1m at the time.
He said during this ordeal his wife was unemployed and they struggled to take through school their children.
Quilie had to move to his in-laws’ house, with the wife’s family and his brother taking care of their financial needs.
“I suffered a lot financially and emotionally. I was even ridiculed by people close to me, both in my neighbourhood and at work.
“It was a very embarrassing situation for my family and it took a toll on my health as I am now a chronic patient...