Desperate to get out of the financial hole he dug for himself, a 25-year-old man resorted to faking his own kidnapping in an attempt to secure money from his parents to pay off ‘Ah Longs’.
Unfortunately for him, his efforts didn’t pay off and he was found by police 24 hours after the alleged kidnapping.
Drained dry
Speaking at a press conference organised by MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong, the man’s father, Zhang, said his son always claimed to have borrowed money to start a business.
However, he suspected his son was addicted to online gambling, adding he spent years helping to settle the latter’s debts.
“I recently paid off RM45,000 owed to 40 different loan sharks, and my son promised not to borrow again.
“But less than two months later, he allegedly took out another RM40,000 in loans from 23 loan sharks,” Zhang said.
Suspicious ‘kidnapping’ photo
On July 25, Zhang’s wife received a call from their son, who claimed he had been kidnapped and demanded a RM30,000 ransom.
Not long after, he sent a photo of himself lying inside a car trunk to his parents.
However, police suspected the kidnapping was fake and believed the photo was a selfie. After tracking down the phone location of Zhang’s son, they eventually found him at a budget hotel in Rawang.
Police also discovered that Zhang’s son had staged his own kidnapping at the directions of the ‘Ah Longs’.
Habitual lying
Zhang said when his son began dabbling with loan sharks, he made the latter stay under the same roof with him so that he could keep an eye on him.
He added that his son worked part-time as an e-hailing driver and enrolled in a finance course but never completed his studies.
My son repeatedly asked the family for money, claiming he needed it to re-sit his exams. But it turned out he had been lying to us all along.
“I’ll no longer repay his son’s debts or defend his actions, and I hope he faces the full consequences of the law and learns from it.”
Charged in court
Meanwhile, Chong said Zhang’s son was charged under Section 385 of the Penal Code for extortion, where he was sentenced to five months in jail or a RM5,000 fine on July 29.
Chong also said he had advised Zhang not to pay the fine on his son’s behalf but to let him learn a lesson by serving his full sentence.
“I hope this prison sentence will allow him to reflect on his actions, realise that crime has serious consequences, turn over a new leaf and stop disappointing his family,” he added.
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