The Tel Aviv District Court convicted a former Dan District police detective of theft by a public official and breaking into a residential home in Bnei Brak.

The indictment reads that two years ago, a policeman accompanied by detectives arrived at a home in Bnei Brak to execute a search warrant. During the search, the policeman detected an envelope containing NIS 7,500 in cash, along with a box containing a bag with gold jewelry.

The money and jewelry were not included in the search and they remained in the apartment. At the end of the search, the complainant was informed that he is being detained in the police station. He was asked by police to lock the apartment door. He did as he was told, then giving the keys to police, who took him to the station.

The officer who was convicted accompanied the complainant to the station. He then took a police scooter and drove back to the apartment and entered using the key, taking the envelope with the cash as well as the box with the gold jewelry. After he was indicted in the case, the officer was dismissed from the department.

In its ruling, the court wrote, “In the absence of a reasonable or plausible explanation on the part of the defendant, and in the absence of any other reasonable possibility arising from the circumstantial evidence, from the aggregate of the circumstantial evidence, together with the falsehood of the defendant during in his interrogation, which was lies that have no reliable explanation, the only logical conclusion is that the defendant broke into the complainant’s home, the home entrusted to him as part of his job as a detective in the Israel Police, and stole the money and jewelry from the complainant’s apartment, and this proved to be the degree of certainty required in criminal cases, i.e., beyond a reasonable doubt”.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)