Police officer accused of theft and 12 others are punished

Published on February 23, 2024, in Society

The then police officer became a defendant, accused of theft and other crimes. His immediate superior and others were punished.

The Kyoto Prefectural Police reported on Thursday (22) that a police officer from the 2nd Investigation Division is suspected of having committed the theft of approximately 13 million yen from a house he visited while carrying out his duties, in addition to other crimes.

He is 57 years old and is already on trial for theft, fraud and creation and use of a public document with a false stamp.

He also reported that he was dismissed on the same day as the statement. A further 12 police officers, in positions higher than his, including the immediate chief, were questioned about their supervisory responsibilities and imposed internal sanctions.

Those punished range in age from 40 to 60 years old.

Police officer spent money from the theft on travel and drinks
According to the police, the incidents took place between 2015 and 2019, when the then police officer on trial worked in the Police Affairs Division of the Yamashina Police Station (Kyoto city). An elderly woman who was at the police station was visited several times and stole around 12 million yen from her house.

On another occasion, when working on an unnatural death investigation in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto city, he allegedly stole around 800,000 yen from the house where the incident took place.

He would have admitted these thefts, in addition to other crimes in other houses, subtracting cash and watches, plus internal fraud from expenses, which were actually rewards for people who collaborated during the investigations.

He argued that he used these sums of money to pay off debts, and to pay for travel and drinks.

These cases were discovered because in April last year, the then police officer committed a theft of 16 items, worth 18 thousand yen, from a store in the city of Uji (Kyoto). In August he ended up confessing to his superior about his past crimes, which is why an investigation was opened.

Koji Mori, the Chief Inspector, apologized to the families harmed by the then police officer and also to society.

Source: Kyoto Shimbun