The COVID-19 pandemic has not slowed down police investigations into alleged overtime fraud by traffic police, as 34 officers remain on police bail while the probe continues.
A spokesman for the police force said the investigation was “actively ongoing” and that the 34 officers who had been questioned and placed on police bail were still on bail.
Informed sources said this also meant that the officers, who formed part of the police traffic branch, were still suspended from the force.
Police bail is granted to suspects when investigators do not have enough evidence to press charges within the 48-hour period they are allowed to detain them following arrest. It can be granted for a maximum of three months.
After the three-month period elapses, prosecutors must be granted an extension from the presiding magistrate.
It is granted against a set of conditions, such as signing a register at their local police station. A basic condition of police bail is that suspects cannot leave the island, though they do not have to forfeit their passport.
Web of fraud, misappropriation and corruption
The sources said the police investigations into the alleged overtime racket were moving in tandem with the magisterial inquiry into the case that was flagged late last year.
The officers are not expected to face any charges in court until this inquiry has been concluded.
The probe has been widened and now also covers other sections and units within the police force where similar irregularities are suspected to have taken place. The internal investigation is still gathering information and evidence in what insiders described as a “complicated exercise”.
Another source familiar with the internal police investigation said that initially, 42 officers within the 50-strong traffic unit had been arrested and interrogated.
Of these, eight officers were found to have had no part in the racket. It is believed that officers within the traffic section, mainly those from the motorcycle section, submitted overtime sheets for hundreds of hours that they did not work, over at least three years.
Investigators are also looking into claims that the officers were using police fuel to fill up their own private vehicles.
The investigation is being conducted jointly by three police arms: the Criminal Investigation Department, the anti-fraud and the internal affairs units. They are looking into what has been described as a “web of fraud, misappropriation and corruption” by officers.
The suspected fraudulent practices within the traffic unit were first brought to the attention of the police in December by an anonymous correspondence sent to the then police commissioner.
The whistle-blower alleged the abuse had been happening for years.