Allegations have been raised that police distorted case handling and statistics to inflate their performance records.

It was reported that the Gumi Police Station in Gyeongbuk recently split a single theft case into 51 separate cases before sending them to the prosecution, which ultimately rejected the submission.

In March, the owner of a large supermarket in Gumi, identified as A, reported a theft to the Gumi Police Station.

According to the police investigation, a male employee identified as B stole groceries and other items from the store a total of 51 times between January and March.

The total amount of property damage was estimated at about 7.5 million won.

However, the Gumi Police Station assigned a separate case number to each of B's 51 thefts.

This effectively made it look as though they had handled 51 separate cases while dealing with just one.

The Gumi Police Station forwarded the case to the Gimcheon Branch of the Daegu District Prosecutor's Office on the 4th, but the branch office canceled the acceptance of the transfer about a week later.

The prosecution viewed the police's handling method as a so-called case-splitting tactic aimed at boosting arrest performance records.

In the end, the Gumi station reorganized the case involving B into two crime recognition reports and sent them back to the prosecution on the 24th.

As the controversy over case splitting emerged, the Gumi station explained that it was a method that had been practiced customarily, while the Gyeongbuk Provincial Police Agency plans to review whether there are any issues with the Gumi station's case-handling practices.

Reported by Jung Da-eun | Video by Ryu Ji-su | Graphics by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News