Three police National Servicemen jailed for stealing case exhibits from police division

Three National Servicemen with the Singapore Police Force who stole case exhibits stored at the Ang Mo Kio Police Division Headquarters last year were sentenced to jail on Tuesday.

The loot included cell phones, a laptop, bags and a bicycle and were sold off to second hand dealers for more than $9,000.

Muhammad Erman Iman Tauhid, 20, was jailed for 18 months. His accomplices were Saiful Rizam Assim and Muhammad Yunus Aziz, both 19, who were then serving as Vigilante Corps officers. Yunus was jailed for 14 months and Saiful received a sentence of seven months in jail.

A district court heard that early last year Special Constable Muhammad Erman was entrusted with the key to the door to the case property store, where case exhibits seized during investigations were kept.

The items were locked in cabinets and the keys were kept by the officer-in-charge of the store.

On April 13 last year, when the officer was on leave, Saiful searched her table and found the keys to the cabinets Together with Muhammad Erman, he opened one of the cabinets and together, they took four phones.

Up to July 16, Muhammad Erman went on to steal 52 cell phones, a laptop and two backpacks on eight occasions. Yunus pleaded guilty to three counts of theft and one count of concealing stolen property while Saiful admitted to committing two thefts.

The prosecution argued for reformative training for the trio which could mean detention of between 18 months to three years with no one-third remission for good conduct.

Lawyer Amarick Gill, who was defending the trio for free, said that this was "too crushing a sentence" and convinced the judge impose prison sentences.

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