His duty as a police officer required Isaac Lim Jun Cheng to handle lost wallets that were given to the police station.

Yet, the 24-year-old turned to pocketing whatever cash he found inside the wallets for his personal expenses.

On Mar. 25, for one count of criminal breach of trust by a servant, Lim was sentenced to three months in jail.

A spokesperson for the Singapore Police Force (SPF) told Mothership that disciplinary proceedings had also commenced against Lim.

Stealing from lost wallets

On Nov. 18, 2018, a woman went to Tampines Neighbourhood Police Centre to lodge a report concerning her lost wallet.

She had last seen it while having lunch at Changi Village Hawker Centre two days prior.

In the meantime, a passerby had found the woman’s wallet and passed it to Balakrishna s/o Kandasamy, who ran a drinks stall at the hawker centre.

Balakrishna recognised the woman from her NRIC identity card in the wallet and decided to hold onto it and return it to her when he saw her again.

He also noticed that there was cash inside the wallet.

However, the woman did not return to the stall, and Balakrishna passed the wallet to his son, with instructions to return it to the woman’s residential address.

After his son visited the address and found no one at home, Balakrishna brought the wallet to the Pasir Ris Neighbourhood Police Centre on Nov. 26, 2018.

He was attended to by Lim, who received the wallet.

Once Balakrishna left, Lim saw that there was cash inside the wallet and removed S$180, which he kept in his pocket. He also did not lodge a report to document the receipt of the wallet.

Lim then contacted the woman, informing her that her wallet had been found.

When she collected it and noticed that cash was missing from its contents, Lim lied and told her that the wallet had been found by the roadside.

Crimes come to light

Lim’s misdeeds were uncovered when the woman ran into Balakrishna at the hawker centre.

Exchanging notes on what had transpired to get the wallet back to the woman, Balakrishna said that he had seen the cash inside the wallet when handing it over to the police.

This prompted the woman to lodge a police report on Jan. 1, 2019 about the missing cash.

Subsequent investigations uncovered that Lim had also taken cash from lost wallets on two other occasions — Jun. 11 and Aug. 11, 2018.

Lim pilfered a total of S$27 from the wallets.

An SPF spokesperson said in a statement that Lim’s offences were an “isolated case” and did not represent the “professional and disciplined conduct of our SPF officers”.

“The SPF take the security of found property placed in Police custody very seriously. There are measures in place to ensure safe and proper handling of all found property.”

The spokesperson also said that Lim had been interdicted since Jan. 15, 2019.

“Officers of the SPF are expected to uphold the law and maintain the highest standards of conduct and integrity. We deal severely with officers who break the law, including charging them in court.”

For criminal breach of trust as a servant, Lim could have been jailed for up to 15 years and fined.

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