This Article is From Jul 06, 2020

Indian-Origin Cop Jailed For 7 Months For Pawning 2 Police-Issued iPads

Hemavathy Gunasekaran, 37, pawned the two police-issued iPads worth $646 at a shop for $215, the court heard.

Indian-Origin Cop Jailed For 7 Months For Pawning 2 Police-Issued iPads

The court had found Hemavathy Gunasekaran guilty of the offence in June 2020 (Representational)

Singapore:

An Indian-origin policewoman in Singapore was sentenced to seven months in jail on Monday for criminal breach of trust for misappropriating two police-issued iPads by pawning them at a shop.

Hemavathy Gunasekaran, 37, pawned the two police-issued iPads worth $646 at a shop for $215, the court heard.

The devices were later resold to other people when she did not redeem them, The Straits Times reported.

Following a trial, District Judge Salina Ishak had found her guilty of the offence last month.

Hemavathy Gunasekaran, who held the rank of Sergeant 2, joined the Singapore Police Force (SPF) in 2005 and was deployed to the Marina Bay Neighbourhood Police Centre (NPC) four years later.

Her duties included conducting house visits to educate the public on SGSecure, Singapore's community response to the terrorism threat.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Foo Shi Hao said in his submissions that at times, such duties involved the use of two SPF-issued iPads, which her colleagues handed to her in November 2016.

The DPP added that the policewoman misappropriated the devices on December 8, 2016 and pawned them for 300 Singapore Dollars at a Jurong West mobile phone shop.

The iPads were later found missing at her workplace and one of her superiors, Assistant Superintendent Tam Chin Kong, repeatedly asked her to look for them in early September 2017, the report said.

Tam Chin Kong later filed a police report.

For criminal breach of trust as a public servant, Hemavathy Gunasekaran could have been jailed for up to 20 years and can also be fined.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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