Cape Town businessman sentenced over illegal cigarettes

Leonie Pretorius

01 September 2016

A Cape Town businessman, Owen Keyser, has been sentenced to five years imprisonment in the Mitchells Plain Magistrate's court on the Cape Flats for corruption after he was found in possession of more than 40 000 packets of illegal cigarettes.

Keyser's sentence has been suspended for five years on condition that he pays R434 000 into the Criminal Assets Recovery Account.

Keyser has also been sentenced to 36 months correctional supervision which consists of house arrest, monitoring and reporting to a Correctional Official at the Community Correction Offices in Mitchells Plain.

Police caught Keyser who was transporting the illicit goods with a uniformed police officer, Jerome Hendricks red-handed in Beaufort-West.

NPA spokesperson, Eric Ntabazalila, says the case against Warrant Officer Hendriks will resume in the Mitchells Plain Magistrate's Court on the 8th of this month.