Kota Kinabalu: A 37-year-old man was jailed four years for robbing a woman of her handbag containing her personal items.
Mahadil Hasan who appeared before Sessions Court Judge Hurman Hussain, had changed his plea and admitted to the charge against him on Monday which was supposed for his trial.
Mahadil robbed Suzzylia Robin of her handbag containing a receipt from National Registration Department, a plastic bag, a birth certificate, a wallet, a set of key and a handphone at 8.15pm on Feb 9 this year at the One Stop premises in Megalong, Penampang.
window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []};googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.defineSlot('/22826383987/dailyexpress_inline', [1, 1], 'gpt-passback').addService(googletag.pubads());googletag.enableServices();googletag.display('gpt-passback');});The charge stated that Mahadil had caused fear to Suzzylia during the incident.
The offence under Section 392 of the Penal Code carries a jail term of up to 14 years and liable to a fine, or whipping, on conviction.
The court ordered Mahadil to serve the jail sentence from the date of his arrest and referred to the Immigration Department upon completing the jail sentence as he did not have any document.
In mitigation, Mahadil who was not represented, asked for leniency saying that he has two children to look after and requested for no whipping to be imposed on him.
However, Deputy Public Prosecutor Fazriel Fardiansyah Abdul Kadir urged the court to impose an adequate sentence considering public interest and the trauma suffered by the victim.
He added that the sentence should be given as a lesson not only to Mahadil but the public at large.
The court heard that the incident happened while the victim was walking alone to her rented room when she realised that someone had followed her from behind and identified the person as Mahadil.
She then entered the Megalong premises and went to the One Stop shop to ask help there but all the workers at that time were women.
Mahadil who claimed that the woman was his wife, then grabbed her handbag and left the scene.
Following a police report, Mahadil was arrested together with the handbag.
