SINGAPORE – A senior staff sergeant with the Singapore Police Force (SPF) misappropriated cash totalling more than $90,000 entrusted to him when he was an investigation officer (IO).
Mohamad Danial Mohamad Nazali committed the offences from 2017 to 2020, and the monies were linked to 24 cases that he was then handling.
At the time of the offences, he was attached to Bedok Police Division as a Senior IO and a deputy officer-in-charge of a general investigation squad in SPF.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Emily Koh told the court: “The accused’s modus operandi was to take the monies seized during investigations… for his own use, to settle debts and for gambling.
“(He) would then forge acknowledgment slips and statements from victims to show that the monies had been returned to the victim, in order to conceal the fact that he had misappropriated (them).”
On June 25, Danial, 34, who was suspended in October 2020, pleaded guilty to eight counts of criminal breach of trust and five forgery charges. Twenty-eight other charges will be considered when he is sentenced on July 23.
DPP Koh said that he joined the SPF in April 2009 and as an IO, his tasks included facilitating the handover of restitution monies from accused persons to victims.
After receiving the cash, Danial had to hand over the monies to the victims and prepare a police acknowledgement slip to show that he had done so. However, he kept the monies for himself and forged multiple slips to cover his tracks.
Among other things, Danial handled a cheating case involving a 61-year-old Indonesian male defendant and a 38-year-old complainant who is a Singaporean woman.
Court documents did not disclose details about the pair’s case but on Nov 9, 2017, the man met Danial at Bedok Police Division headquarters in Bedok North and handed him $5,000 in cash. The money was supposed to be given to the woman as restitution.
Danial then issued him a police acknowledgement slip, stating that he had received the money.
The prosecutor said: “(Danial) was supposed to return the money to the complainant… but he did not do so. Instead, he used the money to place bets on soccer betting and on personal expenses.”
He also forged a slip to show that he had purportedly handed her the money.
The court heard that he went on to commit similar offences multiple times after this incident.
They came to light after one of his superiors – a superintendent at Bedok Police Division – received Danial’s annual credit bureau screening on Oct 15, 2020.