Kota Kinabalu: A police sergeant, currently serving 18 months jail for cheating, was on Monday sentenced to one-year jail for using as genuine two forged documents to cheat a man four years ago.
Paul Pius @ Robert, 53, pleaded guilty before Magistrate Jessica Ombou Kakayun to using two forged Notice of Auction Sale (in public) of unclaimed vehicles under Section 22 of the Police Act, as genuine at 10am on Jan 28, 2019 at Police Station here.
The offence, under Section 471 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 465 of the same Code, carries a jail term of up to two years or fine, or both, on conviction.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Nurul Shafeerah Mad Iskim in presenting the facts of the case, told the court that the complainant, one Roger Fong approached a police officer to confirm the validity of the said documents, as the document bore the officer’s signature.
The complainant also paid RM4,500 to book a Toyota Camry 2.4v and a Pregio Kia van, the court heard.
Investigations revealed that the complainant has dealt with Robert who is on duty at the Karamunsing Police Station and has known him for over a year and believed the matter to be true.
Based on the statement, the police officer found that Paul had cheated the complainant over the auction and the officer also confirmed that the signature on the forged document was not his as he never signed any document related to the auction.
A police report was later lodged against Paul, said the prosecution.
Unrepresented, Paul, requested to serve a jail sentence concurrently with his present case and not to be fined as he is currently not working and also suffering from high blood pressure.
DPP Nurul applied for a deterrent sentence to run consecutively by submitting that Paul was a government servant who should enforce the law properly.
The Magistrate ordered Paul to serve the jail sentence consecutively with his present jail term.
Paul was on May 12, 2021 sentenced
to 18 months and fined RM3,000 or six months’ jail for cheating a man
of RM1,500 over a purchase of an auctioned motorcycle at Sabah Police Headquarters.
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