Cop made off with over $90k in cash entrusted to him as an investigation officer

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 Danial 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.

The DPP said: “It was discovered that (Danial) had accumulated unsecured debts of close to three months of his monthly salary, based on his credit report from the Credit Bureau of Singapore, and... he had taken loans from several licensed moneylenders and his colleagues.”

Danial was on leave when the superintendent, who was then the head of investigation at the division, asked two assistant superintendents to conduct a check on Danial’s workstation and cabinets.

The assistant superintendents were going through investigation files under Danial’s charge when they discovered copies of police acknowledgement slips.

The documents were linked to monies which he had received from people who were involved in cases that he had investigated.

Danial was later confronted with the findings and he came clean about what he had done. He was arrested on Oct 17, 2020, and suspended from duties five days later.

On June 25, DPP Koh urged the court to sentence him to up to four years and seven months’ jail.

She said: “His behaviour constituted a dishonour to the policing profession and a betrayal of his organisation to the highest degree – not only did he commit an offence in the course of duty, he also committed the very offence for which he was responsible to prevent.”

Danial has since made $7,600 in restitution.