Former Police Officer Sentenced to Prison for Using Position to Dine and Dash and Assaulting Citizen

A former police officer who used his status to drink on credit and assaulted citizens has ultimately ended up wearing a prison uniform and serving a jail sentence.

According to the legal community, Judge Jeong Yuntaek, presiding judge of the Changwon District Court Criminal Division 1 in Gyeongnam, sentenced Mr. A, a man in his 30s, to one year and two months in prison on charges including fraud and obstruction of business.

Changwon District Court, Gyeongnam.
Photo by Lee Seryoung

According to the court, Mr. A was accused of assaulting employees and destroying property at bars in Sangnam-dong, Seongsan-gu, Changwon, and Seomyeon, Jin-gu, Busan, from October to November last year, after being asked to pay for his drinks.

He also broke a whiskey bottle and threatened employees by holding it to their necks, and used his police status to intimidate them as if he could have them prosecuted for false accusations.

Even after being suspended from duty for violating standards of conduct, he continued his crimes by drinking on credit and committing assaults.

On the 31st of the same month, he threw and broke an empty whiskey bottle on a roadside in Seongsan-gu, Changwon, and when startled passersby confronted him, he knocked one to the ground and assaulted them multiple times.

On November 7, at a karaoke bar in Sangnam-dong, he caused a disturbance and broke property during the process of being arrested by police who responded to a report that he was refusing to pay his bill.

Mr. A, who was affiliated with the Changwon Jungbu Police Station, was ultimately dismissed through police disciplinary procedures.

The court stated, "The means and methods of the crime were particularly egregious, as he abused his police status to cover up or justify his own illegal acts," and added, "Despite having already caused multiple incidents, instead of exercising self-restraint, he committed further crimes in even more brazen and egregious ways, significantly undermining public trust and the integrity of the police. These factors were taken into account in sentencing."

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