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SINGAPORE – A police sergeant who committed a series of crimes, including mischief and misappropriation of items from his workplace, was sentenced to six months in jail on Friday (September 4).
Joel Lim Jian Da, now 28, who was attached to the Tampines Neighborhood Police Center (NPC) but has since been suspended, had also taken home 64 confidential documents belonging to the Singapore Police, although he had no right to keep them.
Details about these documents were not disclosed in district court.
The Singaporean also took his colleague’s work equipment, a Cubicon 2 Motorola ES400 mobile data terminal valued at $ 1,368, and threw it away.
Deputy Attorney General Genevieve Pang said: “The ES400 is a mobile data terminal used by the police to transmit ‘live’ information of ongoing operations and investigations from officers to the operating room and vice versa, to dispatch officers or call for updates on ground operations from those officers. “
On Friday, Lim pleaded guilty to two counts of dishonest misappropriation of property, as well as one count of mischief and giving false information to a public servant.
Seven other charges were considered during the sentencing, including a crime under the Official Secrets Act that involved confidential documents.
It is not known why Lim committed these crimes, but defense attorney Anand Nalachandran said they were not for the personal benefit of his client.
At around 4.30am on October 17, 2015, Lim entered a police vehicle parked near the NPC and saw a policewoman’s ES400 inside.
He took the device even though it did not belong to him. The policewoman returned about 20 minutes later and conducted a search after finding him missing.
Lim then tried to cover up his illegal act by joining the search. She said she threw the device into a garbage can later.
Later that day, Lim gave false information to another police officer, claiming that he had not seen the ES400 television.
The DPP said: “Due to the false information provided by the defendants, it was thought at the time that the eventual loss of the ES400 equipment was entirely the fault (of the police).”
Lim only stated clearly what he had done on September 21, 2016. Since then he has made a full refund.
When agents searched his apartment later that day, they found items that included the 64 confidential documents, electronic link cards from two students, and an NRIC that had been given to him earlier while he was running a counterclaim at the NPC in 2015.
The court heard that instead of doing a found property report like he was supposed to, Lim took the NRIC home with him and kept it there until it was seized on September 21, 2016.
For mischief, he could have been jailed for up to two years and fined.
For giving false information to a public servant, a criminal can be imprisoned for up to one year and fined up to $ 5,000.
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