News24 reports that more than 12 years since their arrest, two former police officers will be sentenced for fraud and corruption in the Cape Town Regional Court on Tuesday.

Western Cape National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said Wilfred Martin and Shaun Falmer were convicted of fraud, defeating the ends of justice and contravening the Customs and Excise Act. On 27 December 2011, an undercover officer from the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) set a sting operation. "A DPCI member, in an unmarked vehicle on Main Road in Paarl pretended to be a foreign national whose vehicle broke down while transporting 12 boxes of illicit cigarettes. Paarl-based police officers approached the vehicle and arrested the 'foreign national' and seized the 12 boxes of illicit cigarettes," Ntabazalila explained. Only three boxes of cigarettes were booked in at the police station as seized goods. The pair were released on bail and went on trial in the Paarl Regional Court in 2014. The accused challenged the constitutionality of their entrapment, prompting a trial-within-a-trial which lasted for a further five years before the prosecution closed its case after the court ruled the entrapment was constitutional. Ntabazalila said the court, after considering the extent of corruption by police officers, issued a judgment in August last year regarding the sentencing of the two officers. They face a minimum prescribed sentence of 15 years in jail unless the court finds compelling reasons to deviate from that sentence.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Cebelihle Bhengu at News24

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