| Fadley Faisal |
THE High Court yesterday imposed a sentence of 12 years’ jail and two strokes of the cane on a former personnel of the Royal Brunei Police Force (RBPF) for repeatedly abandoning his post to commit a string of housebreakings, trespassing and disobedience.
On July 20, 2017, Muhammad Dennie Eswandi bin Saban, a 36-year-old Bruneian, pleaded guilty to 15 charges comprising offences of housebreaking by night under section 457 of the Penal Code, Chapter 22; house-trespass under section 451 of the Penal Code, Chapter 22; criminal trespass in a protected place; acting in a manner which was likely to prejudice the safety of any person or property in a protected place under section 6A(b) of the Protected Areas and Protected Places Act, Chapter 147; and disobeying a superior officer – under section 28 of the RBPF Act, Chapter 50.
The defendant admitted to the Statement of Facts tendered by Deputy Public Prosecutor Hajah Rozaimah binti Haji Abdul Rahman, which read that on a number of occasions between November 2016 and April 2017, while on duty, the defendant would leave his control post to enter the protected place he was assigned to guard and was prohibited from entering.
The defendant would discreetly enter the protected place during quiet hours of the day to steal valuables from the rooms.
He would then quickly sell the stolen items.
Housekeeping staff eventually realised that the valuable items had gone missing and a police report was lodged in April 2017.
During investigations, not all the stolen items were recovered. However, the RBPF did recover approximately $306,000 worth of stolen items from the person who the defendant had sold the items to.
In sentencing the defendant, Justice Dato Paduka Steven Chong noted that this was a bad case of breach of trust and dereliction of duty by a policeman.
He further commented that while the defendant did state that he committed the offences out of desperation because he was heavily in debt and that his family will suffer hardship without his support, these factors could not mitigate the gravity of the offences committed.
The court further commented that as the defendant had repeated his criminal conduct over a period of five months as well as taking into account the substantial value of the property stolen, a severe sentence was justified in order to punish and deter such criminal behaviour.
The defendant was dismissed from the RBPF on June 22, 2017.
