| Fadley Faisal |

A UNIFORMED personnel who pleaded guilty to committing Criminal Breach of Trust (CBT) was sentenced to four months’ jail by the Intermediate Court yesterday. DPP Amiriah binti Haji Ali revealed the turn of events in court when S/Sergeant 3618 Aini binti Haji Diwa, 44, of the Royal Brunei Police Force (RBPF) was posted to the Compound Unit, Docket Unit and Exhibit Unit at the Berakas Police Station.

Her duties included receiving bail bond money from road traffic offences handed to her by an In-Charge Officer (IC Team). After receiving the money from the IC team, the defendant would issue a minute, which the Officer Commanding Station (OCS) would sign off, and then hand the money over to the police headquarters in Gadong.

It was sometime in August 2015, the defendant pocketed BND2,200 from bail bond money paid to her on duty.

Instead of preparing a minute for the OCS to sign off, the defendant kept the money in a bag and took the money home.

The following day, the defendant brought the bag containing the bail bond money to her office but did not hand it over to the OCS.

A few days later, the defendant went to a car workshop and used the bail bond money to pay for the repairs of her car.

A shortage of BND2,200 from the Berakas Police Station funds of 2015 was discovered during an internal audit carried out sometime in early 2018.

Internal investigations led to unearthing the defendant’s act of failing to hand over the bail bond money of BND2,200 to the OCS sometime in August 2015.

A police report lodged led to the defendant’s arrest. The defendant immediately admitted to her acts and made full restitution to the funds.

Judge Pengiran Hajah Norismayanti binti Pengiran Haji Ismail, on deciding the sentence, said that the fact that the defendant has made full restitution does not in any way lessen the seriousness of the offence, although, it may be taken into account in mitigating her sentence.

The court considered that the defendant had risked her job, trustworthiness and credibility while abusing the trust put on her.

“Her conduct would have gone undetected if it were not for the internal audit and investigations being carried out,” the judge said.