Senior Tel Aviv cop arrested in bribery case

A senior policeman from the Tel Aviv District was arrested Tuesday night on suspicion of breach of trust and accepting bribes, accused of overlooking a bus company’s traffic violations in return for unduly cheap deals on private transportation for family trips.

Along with the policeman, who holds the rank of deputy commissioner, a top executive at the Dan Public Transportation company was also arrested in the case, which is being handled by the Police Investigation Unit.

Both men were scheduled to be brought before the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday for a remand hearing.

The suspicions relate to events that happened before the police officer took up his current senior position.

Investigators believe police officers and their families were given reduced rates for bus services by Dan through its subsidiary United Tours in return for police going easy on the company’s traffic offenses.

Suspicions were first raised by the Dan company’s own internal audit committee, which found irregularities in the prices charged for some trips, the Hebrew-language Ynet website reported.

In one incident a police group and their family members paid just NIS 2,000 ($516) to rent a bus for a three-day trip to Eilat. The expected price for such a service should be around NIS 6,500 ($1,680).

In total the officer is suspected to have received benefits totaling NIS 1 million ($260,000).

Israel’s police force has recently been wracked by a series of high-profile corruption and sexual harassment scandals.

Those included Deputy Commissioner Nissim Mor, who was suspended in January after allegations emerged that he had sexually assaulted a subordinate officer; former Jerusalem district police chief Nissan “Niso” Shaham, dismissed in late 2013 over allegations of sexual harassment, breach of trust, fraud and indecent acts; and top anti-corruption police official Menashe Arviv, who resigned in 2014 amid allegations that he had received thousands of dollars and other assistance from popular rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto, who was sentenced in May to a year in prison for bribery and corruption.

In July Deputy Commissioner Ephraim Bracha, who headed the police’s fraud investigations unit, shot and killed himself, days after an Israeli news website accused him of accepting bribes from Pinto.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.