54-year-old Mohamed Mohamed Jalil, who was a senior station inspector with the Singapore Police Force, was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment after pleading guilty to three counts of criminal breach of trust by misappropriation as a public servant.
He had taken about $43,000 worth of money meant as restitution to a victim, whose case he was investigating at the time, and used the money to fund his holidays in the Philippines, his rental payments and maintenance payments to his ex-wife, according to The Straits Times.
The Background
Mohamed Mohamed Jalil, who had been a part of the SPF since May 1989, was attached to the investigation branch of Tanglin Division when these incidents occurred.
The case revolves around a woman, identified as ‘D,’ who made a police report in March 2012, alleging that her housemate, ‘T,’ had pawned jewelry that D had entrusted her to clean. Furthermore, D claimed that T had also misused the money that D had given her for investment opportunities.
Mohamed Mohamed Jalil was the investigation officer assigned to this case.
From April 2012 to March 2013, he informed T to make restitution of approximately $80,000 for the jewelry and the money she had received from D, without obtaining approval from SPF management or the Attorney-General’s Chambers, which is required for arranging restitution payments.
It is essential to note that Mohamed was well aware of the necessity for approval before making such arrangements. Despite this knowledge, he moved forward with his actions.
Trust and the Misappropriation
T, trusting Mohamed as the investigation officer, agreed to make the restitution payment. From March 2013 and November 2017, Mohamed collected a total of $43,000 from T and her husband under the pretext that this money would restituted to D.
Initially, he received the cash directly from the couple at Tanglin Division. However, he later collected the money from them at different locations outside of the police station and devised methods to divert the money for his personal use.
He used the ill-gotten gains to make rental payments, fulfill maintenance obligations to his former wife, and even for his holidays in the Philippines.
The discovery of Mohamed’s transgressions occurred in 2020 when D’s daughter reported to the SPF that some of the misappropriated jewelry had been returned to her family without proper documentation and she revealed that her mother had been unable to contact Mohamed since 2019 to follow up.
Consequently, Mohamed was suspended from the SPF in July 2020, marking the end of his lengthy career in law enforcement.