A woman constable, who stole an automated teller card (ATM) belonging to another female constable and withdrew cash, was sentenced to six months rigorous imprisonment, suspended for five years, by the Teldeniya Magistrate.
Magistrate H.S. Ponnaperuma also imposed a fine of Rs. 750 and warned the woman constable, identified as L. U. Kumudini Kumari, that if the fine was not paid, the jail term would be extended by three months.
Constable Kumari pleaded guilty and admitted that she used a People's Bank PET card belonging to another woman constable, with whom she shared a room at Uyanwatte Training College when they were sent to Kandy for Perahera duty. Police told court that Constable Kumari had withdrawn Rs. 120,000 on four occasions using the stolen card.
Police also arrested another woman police constable who accompanied constable Kumari to the ATM machine. She was later released as investigations showed that she did not know that constable Kumari was using a stolen ATM card.
The complainant, constable Dhammika, told police that upon realising that the ATM card which she had placed inside a diary had gone missing, she first called her home, only to be told it was not there. She then contacted the People's Bank’s Kandy branch and found out that someone had been withdrawing money from her account.
Acting on constable Dhammika’s complaint, Kandy’s Special Crimes Investigation Unit Chief Inspector M.A.M. Farouk and Inspector T.B. Wijekoon carried out investigations and arrested constable Kumari. | 
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