Officer used his inside knowledge of security procedures to carry out the theft
By
Elena Chong, Courts Correspondent
AN AUXILIARY police officer familiar with the security procedures behind moving large sums of money within the Certis Cisco building made stealing $2 million look so easy.
Details of how Stanley Ong Beng Hock, 28, did it in April emerged yesterday in court, where he pleaded guilty to the theft and two other charges.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Jean Chan said that on April 12, Ong was given the job of delivering nine consignments of cash to the vault in Certis Cisco's premises off Paya Lebar Road.
Equipped with four trolleys to move several boxes and envelopes of cash, he stacked up most of the boxes onto three trolleys.
He put the money he was to steal - an envelope with the $2 million in $1,000 notes - atop the fourth trolley, which had fewer boxes on it.
While pushing the trolleys out to one of many checkpoints for checks and body searches, he manoeuvred the first three trolleys, stacked high with boxes, so the two officers manning the checkpoint could not see the fourth trolley.
DPP Chan said this was when Ong slipped the envelope into his jacket. While the first three trolleys were being checked, he excused himself to go to the washroom, where he hid the money behind a sofa there.
He returned to the washroom later to retrieve the envelope before going for lunch. The alarm was raised at about 2.45pm, when he failed to return.
He had then met his colleague, police constable Tan Chee Wey, 41, at a food centre in Kallang and handed him $800,000 of his loot to make good on his debts.
The case against Tan, who has since been charged, is pending. Ong, a Malaysian, fled with the rest of the money across the Causeway, where he was arrested two days later in a rented apartment in Kuala Lumpur.
Please read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.
