2 failed hits, 1 staged murder
A Hawks officer pretended to be an assassin to nab a KZN millionaire who allegedly wanted his business partner killed.
|||Durban - A Hawks police officer pretended to be an assassin and staged a murder on Monday night to nab a Pinetown millionaire who allegedly wanted his business partner killed for a R34 million insurance payout.
It is believed the wealthy businessman, said to be well known in the finance industry, had hired five hit men over this year in attempts to kill his partner.
Convinced of Grant Williams’s “murder” after hearing reports over a police radio, making several calls to the house and also sending people to the crime scene, the businessman’s employees met the “assassin” to pay him R10 000.
Hawks investigating officer, Detective Sergeant Deena Govender, and his team from the Serious and Violent Crime Unit arrested two men at the meeting point in Maydon Wharf opposite their offices.
The men then led them to Williams’s business partner’s home. The business partner was found with an unlicensed 9mm pistol and was arrested.
Hawks spokesman, Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi, said the police were initially investigating what was believed to have been a botched hijacking earlier this year, but later discovered it was actually a failed hit.
In July, two hired guns, said to be from the “tow truck mafia”, had followed Williams from a seminar in Drummond to his home in Kloof where he was shot several times. A case of attempted murder was opened in Pinetown.
Williams’s vocal chords were damaged in the attempt and he is now also confined to a wheelchair.
It is alleged that two weeks later, his business partner then instructed one of the hired hit men to hire three men to shoot Williams’s father-in-law, who assisted Williams in the business.
He was confronted outside Williams’s home while his grandchildren were in the car with him.
Mulaudzi said the father-in-law had fought back when one of the men pointed a gun at him and the grandchildren had also screamed, leading to the men fleeing.
The Hawks then received information that Williams’s business partner was planning another attempt on Williams’s life and was in search of a hit man.
Mulaudzi said a Hawks police officer posed as an assassin for hire that was introduced to the businessman’s employee, one of the alleged hit men initially hired, who then provided him with a police radio, blue light and a car.
The radio would enable him to listen out for any police officers in the area and the blue light was apparently to attract the home owner’s attention to open the main gates to their large property.
The Hawks then approached the Director of Public Prosecutions to authorise Williams’s staged murder. This is said to be the first time something like this was done.
Mulaudzi said the businessman was only approached “at the last minute” and when further questioned about a possible motive, they were told of the life policy that had recently been taken out in Williams’s name.
“He was shocked to learn his close friend and business partner wanted him dead for money,” Mulaudzi said.
At 9pm on Monday paramedics and police arrived at Williams’s house to find him lying “dead” on the floor from a bullet wound and his body covered.
They were only informed of the staged murder when they arrived.
The Hawks waited until payment had been made for the “murder”, thirty minutes later, before arrests were made.
The three men, including the businessman, are being held at Durban Central police station and are expected to appear in court soon.
noelene.barbeau@inl.co.za
Daily News
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