Kota Kinabalu: A 32-year-old housewife was jailed seven months and fined RM3,000, or one month’s jail in default, by the Magistrate’s Court here for stealing clothing items from a department store, two years ago.
Jascinta Shima pleaded guilty before Magistrate Wan Farrah Farriza Wan Ghazali to committing the offence at 6pm on Oct 30, 2023, at CT Department Store in City Mall, Jalan Lintas.
The charge stated that Jascinta stole a shirt worth RM89, seven pieces of women’s underwear worth RM79.90, all belonging to the department store.
She was charged under Section 380 of the Penal Code, which carries a jail term of up to 10 years and may also include a fine, on conviction.
According to the prosecution, on the said day, a sales assistant noticed that several clothing items taken into a fitting room by a female customer were not returned.
The customer then left the store without making any payment.
The sales assistant alerted a supervisor and a security guard, who followed the woman to a pharmacy outlet on the lower floor and when questioned, the woman, later identified as Jascinta, claimed she had returned all the clothes.
However, the supervisor later returned to the pharmacy outlet out of suspicion and found the missing items hidden among stacked boxes.
CCTV footage also showed Jascinta repeatedly entering and leaving the fitting room with clothing items before leaving some unreturned.
The court ordered Jascinta to serve the sentence from the date of the conviction.
In another case, a 20-year-old man was fined RM3,000 or one month’s jail for house trespass, last year.
Shamril Abdullah pleaded guilty to trespassing into a house in Kg Inanam Laut, Inanam, at 5.10am on Feb 28, 2024.
He was charged under Section 448 of the Penal Code, which provides for imprisonment of up to three years, or a fine of up to RM5,000, or both, on conviction.
The court was told by the prosecution that police investigations revealed that Shamril admitted to entering the house with the intention of stealing, but panicked when the complainant woke up, leading to a struggle.
He was later caught by the complainant’s father and handed over to police.
