A policewoman has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) for exchanging her colleague’s designer handbag worth about 21,000 patacas with a fake one, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam said at a regular press conference on Friday.
Ho noted that the 26-year-old suspect surnamed Lei told the police that she is a Public Security Police (PSP) officer. Ho added that both the local suspect and the victim joined the Public Security Police in 2017.
According to Ho, the Judiciary Police received a referral from the Public Security Police on the evening of July 13 of a theft case from the women’s changing room of a police station. Ho said that the victim put her handbag into a locker and locked it with a U-shaped combination lock after changing her clothes in the morning on that day before she started work, adding that when she finished work she discovered that her “real” handbag had been switched by someone in the afternoon, but the contents in the “fake” handbag were hers.
Ho said that the Judiciary Police identified Lei as the suspect and summoned her to the PJ headquarters on Thursday for further investigation.
Lei admitted that she had fallen out with the victim earlier this year over work issues, so she took revenge in June by buying online a counterfeit handbag that looked like her colleague’s designer handbag and then swapping the genuine handbag with the bogus one when she was on duty. She added that she threw the real handbag away in the street, according to Ho.
Ho said that the genuine handbag had not yet been recovered at the time of Friday’s press conference, adding that the Judiciary Police believe that Lei “tricked” the password to open the combination lock so that she could swap the two handbags. Ho did not elaborate on how Lei was able to “trick” the password.
Ho said that Lei had been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), where she was facing an aggravated theft charge.
Public Security Police ‘highly concerned’ about officer breaking the law
Meanwhile, a statement by the Public Security Police on Friday said that they were highly concerned about a PSP officer being transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office for alleged theft. The Public Security Police underlined that they are “actively” cooperating with the Judiciary Police in their investigations.
The statement noted that disciplinary proceedings have been launched to follow up on the case, while the officer has been placed on temporary suspension.
The statement reaffirmed that police officers must strictly abide by the law.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam addresses Friday’s regular press conference at the PJ headquarters in Nape. – Photo courtesy of TDM
