A former police sergeant was yesterday slapped with 60 charges for a slew of offences, including criminal breach of trust and forgery.

Norazly Joihani, 33, was accused in court of committing the offences while working for the force between January 2009 and November 2010.

The former Bedok Police Division officer was interdicted from service from January 2011 before being discharged on March 1 this year for a "separate disciplinary matter", said a police spokesman, who gave no further details.

Norazly faces two counts of criminal breach of trust - which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in jail and a fine - for allegedly misappropriating more than $2,700 he was entrusted with. The sum has not been recouped.

The bulk of the charges against him are for forgery, including 32 counts under Section 465 of the Penal Code. He is said to have put entries in documents under the name of his then-colleague, Assistant Superintendent of Police Kamal Din Ali.

He faces another 19 counts under the more serious Section 468, for purportedly forging signatures on police acknowledgement slips for case exhibits to be returned to members of the public.

This amounts to cheating, according to the charge sheets, because the forged document was used to "intentionally induce" another police officer to log into a system that the items had been returned. Their whereabouts are not known. Section 465 carries a maximum jail term of four years and a fine, while Section 468 carries up to 10 years in jail and a mandatory fine.

Norazly, who is represented by lawyer Jason Dendroff of JP Dendroff & Co, was also accused of disobeying his superiors in five instances by allegedly failing to file papers to launch investigations. He also faces two counts of misconduct, for failing to return $160 and a Nokia 580i mobile phone to their rightful owners.

A pre-trial conference has been fixed for July 31.

WALTER SIM