A PSNI officer is contesting a charge of fraud involving £500 in connection with the police’s Universal Offer Scheme which was established to assist staff affected by a data breach.
The accused is Kaelum Lappin (26), with an address listed as PSNI headquarters.
The single charge is ‘fraud by abuse of position’.
The full details of the charge are: ‘Defendant between the 30th day of January 2024 and the 29th day of January 2025 whilst occupying a position in which you were expected to safeguard, or not to act against, the financial interests of your employer, dishonestly abused that position in that having applied for and received £500 under the PSNI Universal Offer Scheme for reimbursement of money you purported to have paid out for security equipment, in fact you had cancelled the said equipment order and received a refund for same on 28th December 2023 and did not declare this to your employer, with the intention, by means of the abuse of that position to make a gain for yourself or another or to cause loss to your employer or to expose your employer to a risk of a loss, in breach of section 4 of the Fraud Act 2006 contrary to Section 1 of the Fraud Act 2006′.
At Craigavon Magistrates’ Court on Friday the case was adjourned to October 17 for a contest.
The police brought in the Universal Offer Scheme, offering £500 to officers and staff affected by a data breach in 2023.
The scheme was for staff to take steps regarding their security following the data error.
