Sep 16, 2010
Cop jailed for taking $70
By Elena Chong
Mohamed Hanafi Mohamed Riza, a police officer who allegedly pocketed $70 from a wallet handed to him by a good Samaritan was charged on 6 August 2010. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
A POLICE sergeant who pocketed $70 from a wallet handed over by a man was jailed for four months on Thursday. Mohamed Hanafi Mohamed Riza, 27, was on duty at Jurong West Neighbourhood Police Centre on Aug 4 last year when Mr Ronnie Woo, 33, turned in a wallet he found at his work place at Boon Lay Place. Mr Woo left without any police report given to him.
Hanafi kept the wallet and after taking $70, disposed of the wallet at a carpark in Woodlands Avenue 4. Later that day, when Mr Puah Wei Khian, 35, the owner of the wallet, learnt that Mr Woo had handed over the wallet at the NPC, he went there but there was no record of the item being handed over. When confronted, Hanafi admitted that he had misappropriated $70 and used it for his own purposes.
Hanafi's lawyer Sunil Sudheesan said his client, who had been with the police force for six years, was supporting his parents and two school-going siblings. His career in the force was over and that was a strong punishment, he added. Hanafi could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined for criminal breach of trust.
