A Brussels criminal court on Thursday sentenced a police officer to a three-year prison term, suspended for five years, for stealing cash from seized-property bags at a police station in August 2025 and for using cocaine in the station's toilets in February 2025.
During the trial, the officer, who was stationed at the Brussels-West zone, denied stealing €525, but the court relied on footage from surveillance cameras in the seized-property vault to establish the facts. The court said it was “beyond doubt” that he had handled the evidence bags while on duty.
The officer, who has been suspended since the investigation began, was also banned from holding public office for five years, without suspension. He is also required to undergo medical and social treatment for drug use.
Prosecutors had asked for a two-year sentence, but the court said the case was exceptionally serious and had damaged public trust in the police.
“Social trust cannot be satisfied with a purely symbolic conviction,” the judge said.
Although the two offences were six months apart and of a different nature, the court found that they formed part of a single course of conduct linked to the officer’s drug use.
More than six portable radios, a body camera and precision scales were also found among the suspect's personal belongings.
In the judgment read out on Thursday, the court said he “was in the habit of holding, without any objective reason, items belonging to the police zone.”
During the trial, the defendant said he had been going through a difficult period at the time after several months away from work because of burnout.
