Woman, son plead guilty to cheating charges, sentenced to 15 years behind bars

KUCHING: A woman and her son pleaded guilty at the Magistrate’s Court here yesterday to several cheating charges.

According to facts of the case, Mereka Jimi, 59, her son Ricky Jinal, 31, and another man went to the complainant’s house at Kampung Sungai Batu in Kota Samarahan on Aug 6, 2015, where they claimed to be able to help the resident qualify for welfare benefits under the Welfare Department.

The complainant followed the three but while inside the car, she told them that she had lost her public trust fund passbook.

As such, the three brought her to the fund centre at Jalan Satok where she obtained a new passbook. After that, she was brought a bank at Jalan Chan Chin Ann here to withdraw RM24,000.

The facts of the case also stated that Mereka had instructed her to inform the bank that she wanted the money to pay for her child’s wedding.

Mereka and the other two then brought the complainant to another bank at Wisma Mahmud here, where she was told to withdraw RM28,000.

However, the bank officer there got suspicious and did not approve that amount; instead, he only approved a withdrawal of RM50.

It was then that the complainant was brought out of the bank in a hurry.

Mereka and Ricky were arrested on March 8 this year after they were positively identified by the complainant during the line-up. The other man is still at large. The charges are framed under Section 420 and Section 420/115 of the Penal Code – both read together with Section 34 – for cheating and deceiving an individual to hand over his/her property.

Magistrate Zubaidah Sharkawi sentenced Mereka 12 months in prison for the first charge, and 15 months in prison for the second charge.

For Ricky, the magistrate sentenced him to 12 months in jail and one stroke of the rotan for the first charge, and 15 months in jail with one stroke of the rotan for the second charge.

All sentences took effect yesterday and the jail terms to be run concurrently.