Windhoek
The Commercial Crime Division’s mandate is to investigate all cases of financial crime.
“This is to safeguard the economy of the country,” Deputy Commissioner Moritz !Naruseb informed New Era recently.
The division, which resorts under the Criminal Investigation Directorate, “ensures that all financial crime cases reported to the police are thoroughly investigated and those who are found guilty of offence are punished by our competent courts and the innocents are given their freedom to enjoy the benefits of liberty,” !Naruseb said.
The commercial crime unit was established on May 1 1986 in Windhoek. This followed an increase in commercial crime in the country in the mid-1980s.
It was subsequently upgraded to a subdivision and was recently upgraded to a division, headed by a deputy commissioner, with subdivisions headed by chief inspectors and inspectors.
The Police Inspector-General Sebastian Ndeitunga says the unit was upgraded because of the workload, and because the unit handles very complicated cases.
He explained that a subdivision is supervised by a chief inspector and was upgraded to be supervised by a deputy commissioner for the unit to correspond with the workload.
The subdivisions are General Fraud, Commercial Fraud, Syndicate Fraud, Anti-Money/Laundering and Cyber Crime.
The subdivisions investigate specific categories of financial crimes and all five subdivisions are based in Windhoek.
The following regions have units in their jurisdiction: Kavango East, Oshana, Omusati, Erongo and //Karas.
The police management is in the process of establishing units in other regions.
The General Fraud Subdivision investigates all personal and business fraud where the amount is above N$100 000, as well as stolen cheques, whether personal or business cheques.
It also investigates fraud where syndicates are involved and computer crimes where syndicates are not involved.
The Cyber Crime Investigation Subdivision investigates computer and cellphone crimes, fraudulent internet transactions and collects evidence from third-party providers.