Kota Kinabalu: The Magistrate’s Court here sentenced a man to 12 months in jail for using as genuine three forged documents to cheat a pub bar here last year.
Abraham Anthony pleaded guilty before Magistrate Jessica Ombou Kakayun to using as genuine three forged bank transaction slips at a pub bar in Cyber City here at 11.30pm on Sept, 15, 2022, at 2.15am on Sept 16, and at 1.44am on Sept 17, all in the same year.
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 a fine or both on conviction.
According to the prosecution, Abraham had frequented the premises between Aug 9 and Aug 19, 2022 and often paid for food and drinks using bank transaction receipts through WhatsApp.
Later in October of the same year, the complainant, who checked their bank account, found no payment record from Abraham, totalling RM23,639 and it was later found that the bank transaction slips forwarded by him were fake.
Abraham, who was not represented, requested a lenient sentence to take effect from the date of his arrest and to run concurrently with his present jail term on a similar offence.
When asked by the court, Abraham claimed a friend bought them beer and the friend paid for it but had asked him to forward the said bank transaction slips to the premises’ account through his WhatsApp, as he once worked at one of the stalls there.
Abraham said the friend was also remanded but he did not know his progress.
Jessica ordered Abraham to serve the sentence consecutively with his present jail sentence.
In another case, a company director was given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) from two counts of cheating over non-existent contractor works involving RM212,705.
The Magistrate released Mohd Khairul @ Sharul Jaafar, whose case came up for the continuation of trial after allowing the application by counsel Nurul Rafeeqa Afdul Mutolip, who acted for Khairul, for a DNAA.
Earlier, the prosecution applied for another trial date to be fixed as the prosecution witnesses were not present but Nurul submitted that the case has been ongoing since 2020 and Khairul was ready to proceed with the trial and applied for DNAA since the prosecution witnesses were not present.
Khairul on Oct 22, 2019 pleaded not guilty to the charges under Section 420 of the Penal Code which carries a jail term of between one year and ten years, with whipping and liability of a fine on conviction.
The charges stated that Khairul was accused of cheating one Abdul Latip Awang Anak and one Richard Among Billod @ Richard Robert, respectively, by making them believe that he could manage non-existent contractor works.
Khairul’s alleged trick caused Latip to pay RM7,400 into a bank account under the name of one Sonia F. Tokiu on Jan 27, 2015 at the CIMB Api-Api Centre here.
Khairul’s alleged trick also caused Richard to make a payment of RM205,305 into a bank account under Sonia’s name between Feb 26, 2016 and June 13 the same year at Maybank Karamusing here.
The court also ordered Khairul’s bail to be refunded.
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