Just when they thought they were off the hook, a pair of suspected perlemoen poachers, who allegedly tried to bribe officials to illegally harvest in a protected nature reserve, will return to court to face evidence previously ruled as inadmissible. After crucial evidence was ruled inadmissible by a Gqeberha magistrate, two alleged perlemoen poachers thought they were off the hook when the case against them was blown out of the water. But Raymond Taylor and Roland Hudson are expected to return to court soon after the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court in Makhana ruled that undercover recordings, where they allegedly bribed SANParks officials to turn a blind eye to their illegal operations, should be allowed as evidence.
The high court decision came after the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) appealed against the Magistrates’ Court judgment, meaning that the case would be reopened and pick up where it left off before the court heard the crucial recordings. Taylor, 56, and Hudson, 51, faced a string of charges after their arrest in May 2022, including corruption, racketeering, contravention of the Marine Living Resources Act and contravention of the National Environmental Management Protected Areas Act. The matter dates back to February 2022, when the accused allegedly made contact with SANParks officials with the intention of bribing them so that they could illegally harvest perlemoen from the reefs surrounding Bird Island, off the coast of Nelson Mandela Bay.
Bird Island forms part of the Addo Elephant National Park and is a protected nature reserve. According to the charge sheet, Taylor contacted a SANParks field ranger via WhatsApp with “an idea that could work well for … both of [them]”, related to diving near Bird Island. The ranger subsequently reported the communication with Taylor to his superiors, who in turn reported the matter to the police.
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This ultimately led to an intricate undercover collaboration between SANParks and the police. In March 2022, the ranger met Taylor in the parking lot of a Newton Park restaurant. The ranger was wearing a hidden recording device and recorded a conversation wherein the accused allegedly propositioned the ranger to become “a contact on the island” who would arrange that perlemoen poaching activities around Bird Island would go unreported.
In the weeks that followed, Taylor introduced Hudson as another role player in the alleged scheme, while the ranger brought one of his colleagues on board as well. During a follow-up meeting in April 2022, at a shopping centre in Walmer, the accused allegedly paid the SANParks officials R20,000 up front to turn a blind eye to their activities.
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