Jacob Abrahams Buys (53), a former police officer appeared in the Benoni Regional Court for contravention of the Precious Metals Act 37 of 2005.
He was arrested by the Vaal Rand Hawks Serious Organised Crime Investigation team in alliance with Germiston Crime Intelligence and Gauteng Highway Patrol on Tuesday, 2 May 2023.
The team executed a search warrant at the accused premises in Benoni.
On arrival at the premises the team found Buys, who claimed to be employed as a smelt operator for a smelt house company in Springs.
During the search, the joint police team uncovered nine (9) nuggets of gold inside his vehicle (Mahindra), one platinum nugget was found in his home office. Furthermore, the team also found a PMD analysis machine, money counting machine as well as an undisclosed amount of money in his house.
Preliminary Investigation revealed that the house is not registered as a commercial place and that the suspect does not possess any permit to buy or deal with Precious Metal and Diamond from his private residence.
He was arrested and made his first court appearance on Wednesday, 3 May 2023.
The case against Buys was postponed to 5 May 2023 for a formal bail application.
