A senior sergeant at the Johnson’s Point Police Station has been tasked to investigate how thousands of dollars went missing from the accounts of customers who bank at the Police Cooperative Credit Union (PCCU).
The PCCU, located at the Police Headquarters on American Road, serves both police officers and civilians.
Information reaching OBSERVER media suggests that over a period of time, thousands of dollars had been transferred among customers’ accounts and were later withdrawn by a civilian loans officer.
The loans officer had essentially identified familiar accounts to which she could transfer the funds without drawing attention to the customers.
OBSERVER media has learnt that as much as $7,000 had been transferred into one officer’s account since the start of the year. The officer in question, until recently, was seen as a suspect in the theft.
Although it has not yet been confirmed, the total amount taken is believed to be about $50,000 dollars.
At least five people were victims of this illicit activity, but it is not clear whether the affected customers were all police officers.
The alleged perpetrator – who has worked at the Police Credit Union for about four years – was kept in police custody for two days after investigations were launched into the missing funds.
Ordinarily, the investigation would have been conducted by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID). Although the unnamed officer is trained in Financial Investigation, police sources argue that he was not given the position because of his skills. They allege that the officer was hand-picked by the President of the PCCU, who played a part in recruiting the accused. The President, who is also a member of the Police Service Commission (PSC), is off island and could not be reached to defend her position.
And, despite calls to the manager of the PCCU on Sunday August 25th 2019, the Corporal could not be reached for comment.
It is not clear what prompted the investigation, but reports are that it was after one police officer became suspicious of a pattern of withdrawals from his account.