Christchurch police officer accused of stealing money handed in by the public

Tuesday, 16 September 2025

A Christchurch police officer allegedly stole money handed in by members of the public and entered false computer records to cover her tracks.

Brearna Kelsi Sloss, a sworn police officer and acting sergeant at the time of the alleged thefts, is on trial at the Christchurch District Court. She faces 26 charges - 15 of theft by a person in a special relationship and 11 of accessing a computer system for a dishonest purpose. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The woman, in her 30s, was working at the front counter of the Christchurch central police station and held the police’s lost property portfolio. It is in that capacity her thefts are said to have occurred between late 2021 and mid 2022. She has since been stood down.

In her role Sloss was responsible for all lost property handed into the station, Crown prosecutor Sunny Teki-Clarke said in his opening address to the jury on Monday. “That includes money,” he said. “This trial is about Ms Sloss stealing or mishandling it, and using the police computer system to achieve that goal.”

Two police systems are used to record lost property - the National Intelligence Application (NIA) and Police Record of Property (PROP). When cash is handed in it is counted, itemised and logged in both systems. If the owner does not claim the money within 28 days the finder can request that it is returned to them. Any unclaimed cash after that period is banked into a police trust account and eventually forfeited to the Crown.

“Ms Sloss has received money at the front counter of the Christchurch central police station,” Teki-Clarke said. “Once it has been handed in… she hasn’t properly accounted for it by recording that it has been returned to the owner, given back to the finder or disposed of. [She is] falsely recording. [It is] a deceptive strategy in order to disguise what truly happened, and the fact remains that the money is still unaccounted for.”

Sloss is alleged to have stolen more than $1700 in smaller amounts ranging between $15 and $350. The 14 different thefts are said to have occurred between November 2021 and April 2022. Sloss was stood down from the police a month later. Of particular concern was $6000 found in a pink purse at Eastgate Shopping Centre that Sloss received as lost property, Teki-Clarke said.

“Ms Sloss entered a narrative into NIA that the owner wished to remain anonymous, and no finder details were lodged,” the prosecutor said. In the other system, PROP, Sloss recorded that the money had been returned to the finder. One of her colleagues noticed the discrepancy. He checked the station’s safe but could not find the money. When he visited the central station office he found the purse on Sloss’ desk.

“He found the details that were added were completely inadequate,” the prosecutor said. “He spoke with her and raised his concerns. She said she located the finder who had children but no car, and so she said she was going to deliver it to her after hours. The sergeant said that was inappropriate and that the owner should collect it from the station. He then put the money into the safe. What follows after that can only be described as a series of suspicious activities.”

Sloss then re-handled and moved the cash a number of times, Teki-Clarke said. She gave contradicting explanations and made a suspicious visit to an ANZ ATM during work hours. When the money was eventually recounted there was $50 missing.

In each instance the money was not returned to its owner, nor the civilian who found it. It did not make its way into the police safe or trust account, the prosecutor said, which witnesses would attest to during the trial.

“The Crown is saying she has already taken the cash, and is going into the police system to cover her tracks.”

In a brief response, defence lawyer Chris Lange urged the jury to listen to the evidence as it came out. “It will be different to how you’ve just been told,” he said. “Some of the money was found at the police station. It hadn’t been taken.”

The trial, expected to last about a week before Judge Tony Zohrab, continues.