SINGAPORE, April 14 — Armed with a gun, a 38-year-old auxiliary police officer walked into a shop along Jurong Gateway Road on Monday (April 12) and showed a staff member a note: "This is a robbery, don’t shout. I got gun in my pocket. Put all the money in the bag.”

After the staff member handed him cash amounting to more than S$24,000 (RM74,090), he fled the scene, but was arrested five hours later.

During a media briefing today, police said they were alerted to the incident at 3.55pm.

Using footage from police cameras and the shop’s close-circuit televisions (CCTVs), they identified the man as an on-duty auxiliary police officer from Aetos.

The man had reported to work at Aetos’ headquarters earlier on Monday and drawn his firearm prior to his deployment. 

He then changed out of his uniform and left Aetos premises with his firearm without authorisation, and allegedly committed the robbery before reporting back to the headquarters to change back into his uniform and take the company van to his deployment location.

He is believed to have acted alone during the robbery, but police added that investigations showed he deposited part of the stolen cash into the bank account of a friend, a 34-year-old woman. 

He also transferred the stolen cash to a few bank accounts to repay his debts to unlicenced moneylenders.

The woman, who had also allegedly facilitated the transfer of the stolen cash, was arrested for dishonestly receiving stolen property.

The auxiliary officer will be charged in court today with being in unlawful possession of arms or ammunition in the commission of a scheduled offence, while the woman will be charged on the same day with dishonestly receiving stolen property.

The police have arrested eight other people, aged between 16 and 48, for the same offence in connection to this case.

About S$17,500 of the stolen monies have been recovered by the police. Efforts are ongoing to recover the remaining amount.

Police investigations are ongoing.

If found guilty, the man could face life imprisonment and no fewer than six strokes of the cane.

If found guilty, the woman could be jailed for up to five years, fined, or both. — TODAY