S'pore police officer, 34, misappropriated more than S$90,000 to place football bets & pay off loans

A 34-year-old police officer was found to have misappropriated funds totalling more than S$90,000, linked to 24 different cases, in his capacity as an investigating officer (IO).

He did so over the course of more than three years, from 2017 to 2020.

Mohamad Danial Mohamad Nazali pleaded guilty on Jun. 25, 2024, to eight counts of criminal breach of trust and five forgery charges.

A further 28 other charges will be heard when he is sentenced on Jul. 23.

Danial was an IO with the Investigation Branch of Bedok Police Division since Feb. 26, 2019.

He was the Deputy Officer-in-Charge of General Investigation Squad 3 of Bedok Police Division since Apr. 1, 2020.

Forged acknowledgement slips

As part of his duties as an IO, Danial had to facilitate the handover of monies as restitution from accused persons to victims.

When the money was handed to him by the accused person, Danial was under a duty to hand over the monies to the victims and lodge a police acknowledgement slip.

However, Danial instead appropriated the funds for himself.

He even forged acknowledgement slips to show that he had handed over the restitution monies to the victims when he did not do so.

Football bets and unsecured debts

Upon investigation, Danial was found to have accrued a significant amount of unsecured debt from licensed moneylenders, as well as other colleagues.

These loans were used for football betting with Singapore Pools and other expenses.

The debts were flagged up during an annual credit bureau screening of Danial, tipping off an investigation.

When Danial was on leave, his workstations and cabinets were searched and found to have numerous copies of police acknowledgment slips.

The slips pertained to monies Danial had received from cases that he had investigated.

Danial was later confronted with the findings and admitted to misappropriating them to service his debts and football bets.

Appropriating funds

One case involved a 39-year-old man who was the defendant of a case of online gambling.

Danial met the accused on three separate occasions at Bedok Police Division Headquarters between Oct. 20, 2019, to Nov. 4, 2019, with the defendant handing over cash totalling S$12,000 and another HKD2,400 (S$417.35) to Danial.

The money was supposed to be seized by Danial as a case exhibit. Danial even issued three police acknowledgment slips stating that he received the money from the defendant.

Danial, however, used the funds to place football bets, and on personal expenses.

Danial was arrested on Oct. 17, 2020, and released on police bail and had to surrender his passport.

He was interdicted from duty with effect from Oct. 22, 2020.

Prosecution sentencing

The prosecution submitted that it is seeking up to 55 months' imprisonment for Danial.

The prosecution highlighted the gravity of the offence considering Danial's position of authority as IO:

Even though actions by rogue officers may not be indicative of any systemic failure, their actions nevertheless threaten to undermine this hard-earned trust if left unchecked or unpunished; the accused's acts not only broadly implicated public institutions by tarnishing the credibility of the SPF, they would have offended the sensibilities of the general public, given that the accused committed the offences under the colour of his office.

Danial has since made a partial restitution of S$7,600.

Top photo from Bedok NPC/Facebook.