Cop misappropriated over $90k in cash entrusted to him

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).

- Shaffiq Alkhatib

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.