Supreme Court Confirms Prison Sentence for Police Officer Who Falsified Inspection Report Using 'Forensic Software'

Supreme Court in Seocho-dong, Seoul. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] The conviction of a National Police Agency employee who caused damage to the police by preparing a false inspection report stating no abnormalities despite knowing that the digital forensic software program used to collect and analyze digital evidence did not meet standards has been confirmed.

The Supreme Court's 3rd Division (Presiding Justice Kim Jae-hyung) announced on the 4th that it upheld the lower court's ruling sentencing A, an industrial researcher of the National Police Agency's Digital Forensics Team, to one year in prison with a two-year probation, recognizing guilt for breach of trust under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, breach of trust in the course of duty, forgery of false official documents, and use of forged official documents.

The Supreme Court explained the reason for dismissing the appeal, stating, "There is no error in the lower court's judgment that violates the principles of logic and experience, exceeds the limits of free evaluation of evidence, or misinterprets the principles of the trial-centered system and direct examination."

A was charged with conspiring with the representative of the supplier to write "no abnormalities" in the inspection reports for three software projects worth approximately 940 million won in total from 2012 to 2013, despite knowing that some functions of the software were not completed as per the contract.

Previously, the first trial court recognized guilt for only one of the three projects and acquitted A for the other two, postponing the imposition of a 10 million won fine.

However, the appellate court found A guilty of breach of trust in the course of duty, forgery of false official documents, and use of forged official documents for all three projects, sentencing A to one year in prison with a two-year probation.

The prosecution also charged A with breach of trust under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, but since the recognized amount of breach did not reach the minimum gain of 500 million won required for the application of the special law, only breach of trust in the course of duty was acknowledged.

During the trial, a key issue was whether A could be considered a "person handling another's affairs," the subject of breach of trust. Generally, in property crimes such as breach of trust, the subject is a person who manages or preserves another's property.

Although A was not the public official directly responsible for concluding the software supply contract, the court judged that since the contract with the supplier could be concluded due to the false inspection reports prepared by A, causing economic damage to the National Police Agency, the breach of trust charge was established.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.