The po­lice of­fi­cer at the cen­tre of a scan­dal which in­volved pawn­ing a $60,000 gold chain has been trans­ferred with im­me­di­ate ef­fect. The chain was part of the ev­i­dence in an on­go­ing mat­ter in the San­gre Grande Mag­is­trates' Court. The con­sta­ble, who was pre­vi­ous­ly as­signed to the Va­len­cia Po­lice Sta­tion, was told yes­ter­day of his trans­fer to the Ma­yaro Po­lice Sta­tion, po­lice sources said. Mean­while, the T&T Guardian was in­formed in­ves­ti­ga­tors from the An­ti-Cor­rup­tion and In­ves­ti­ga­tion Bu­reau (ACIB) had com­plet­ed their in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the in­ci­dent and would con­sult the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions lat­er this week be­fore crim­i­nal charges were laid.

The of­fi­cer faces charges of mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic of­fice, lar­ce­ny and oth­er dis­ci­pli­nary charges un­der the Po­lice Stand­ing Or­ders. The chain was first re­port­ed stolen by a Va­len­cia busi­ness­man, who was robbed at a bar in Va­len­cia last No­vem­ber. Three sus­pects were lat­er de­tained and the chain re­cov­ered by po­lice. The men - Wen­dell Je­re­my, Em­manuel Pe­ters and Asa Mc Clean - were charged and ap­peared be­fore a San­gre Grande mag­is­trate. How­ev­er, the chain was not lodged at the po­lice sta­tion or re­turned to its own­er in ac­cor­dance with po­lice stand­ing or­ders.

In a state­ment pro­vid­ed to ACIB in­ves­ti­ga­tors, the con­sta­ble claimed to be an ac­quain­tance of the busi­ness­man and said he had made a deal with him to buy the chain, po­lice sources said. He re­port­ed­ly ad­mit­ted to pawn­ing the chain and claimed he gave the busi­ness­man a $5,000 down-pay­ment. The T&T Guardian un­der­stands the busi­ness­man de­nied the al­le­ga­tions while be­ing ques­tioned by in­ves­ti­ga­tors.

Se­nior Supt Solomon Koon Koon, of the ACIB, is lead­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.