A police sergeant was referred to prosecutors on November 7 by Osaka Prefectural Police on suspicion of illegal use of electronic money swindled in a special case of fraud, according to investigation sources.

The officer in his 40s previously worked at the Ibaraki police station. Since this spring he has been assigned to the special fraud investigation section of the prefectural police.

The officer has denied some of the charges, according to sources, but prefectural police plan to take disciplinary action against him.

According to sources, when the officer was in charge of special fraud investigations at the criminal division of the Ibaraki Police Station, there were several cases where suspected fraudsters tricked elderly victims into purchasing e-money cards at convenience stores. .

These criminals steal the e-money card code number over the Internet and use it for payments and other purposes.

After purchasing the card, the victims gave the code number to the suspects. But it is believed that some of the code numbers were not transmitted accurately and some of the codes were not actually used.

According to sources, the officer is suspected of adding such electronic money to his smartphone between the end of 2023 and the spring of this year, leaving around 800,000 yen ($5,200) available for use.

The officer reportedly used some of the electronic money to play smartphone games.

The officer told investigators, “I had no intention of keeping the electronic money” and “I was trying to protect the victim’s property,” according to sources.

The special fraud investigation section of the prefectural police, to which the officer belongs, was created in 2022 to strengthen measures against special fraud.

In 2022, the total damage from special fraud cases identified by the prefectural police amounted to 3.1 billion yen. The figure increased to 3.6 billion yen in 2023.