The purchase of the angle grinder ended in a police drama.
A woman, who has previously been suspected of fraud, posted an ad on Facebook last September where she sold the tool. A policeman in western Sweden bought it and swished SEK 725 to the seller.
The next day, the woman’s nightmare began.
The police officer, who was also a dog handler, had checked the seller’s address in the authority’s internal register and sought out the woman and her partner in their home. Wearing a police uniform and with the service dog, he then forced his way into the home – with the aim of getting back the money for the angle grinder. According to the woman, he also had a crowbar and sledgehammer with him.
“In doing so, (the policeman) used his position as a police officer and the powers that the police have at his disposal by stating that he would arrest (the woman) for fraud and take her to the police station if she did not return the money to him,” the prosecutor writes in the lawsuit.
Wrote a false police report: “Groundless”
According to the indictment, the policeman allegedly used “threatening words” by saying that “he was known not to be a nice person and that you shouldn’t mess with him” in order to get the money back. The woman then chose to leave over SEK 700.
Later in the day, the woman contacted the policeman and asked how it was that he, in his duty as a policeman, sought them out at the residence on a private matter. In order for a police officer to enter someone’s home, legal support is required, for example in the case of a search connected to a crime.
The policeman then, according to the indictment, made further illegal searches in the systems. He then drew up a police report which the prosecutor calls “groundless and incorrect”. He then reported the woman’s partner for drug offenses and stated that he had been there and carried out a house search. He also wrote detailed minutes and the memorandum connected to it, which according to the prosecutor contained “false information”.
“Seriously abused his position as a police officer”
“The police report, the protocol of the search and the memorandum have been drawn up with the aim of giving the appearance that (the policeman) had a legal basis to enter the plaintiff’s home and carry out a search, as well as to conceal (the policeman’s) real purpose in searching for the plaintiff, the that is to say, to recover the money that he swished to the plaintiff for the purchase of the angle grinder,” writes the prosecutor in the indictment.
The prosecutor states that the policeman “seriously abused his position as a police officer” and that it is a matter of gross misconduct that covers the crimes of data breach, violation of domestic peace and gross false certification.
The police deny any crime.