Woman jailed over face mask scam

KOTA KINABALU: A woman was jailed for six months by the Magistrate's Court here yesterday for hiding another woman's cash in a bank account being payment for purchase of face masks purchase amounting to RM6,300 last month.

Magistrate Lovely Natasha Charles passed the sentence on Zulalina Kahar, 20, after the latter pleaded guilty to a charge under Section 424 of the Penal Code.

The indictment carries a jail term of up to five years or a fine or both, upon conviction.

The accused admitted to hiding the money belonging to the 25-year-old victim in the accused's bank account at Taman Teluk Likas on April 17.

The facts of the case stated that the victim had communicated with the accused about purchasing 160 boxes of face masks worth RM6,300 from the accused.

The victim had paid the amount to the accused's bank account in five stages via online banking.

The accused had promised to send the items on April 20 and had given the victim the postage numbers, however, upon checking the numbers, the victim found that the items were not sent to her but to another person in which she believed that it was not the item she bought from the accused.

The victim had called the accused asking about the item but the accused kept giving many excuses and agreed to pay back the victim's money.

In the proceedings yesterday, the accused said that she had only paid RM500.

When the court enquired, the accused said that she committed the offence because she wanted cash.

The accused also chose not to be provided with a social report before the sentence was passed as she had no money to pay for bail.

In mitigation, the accused said that her family is poor and that she is the sole breadwinner since she claimed that her husband never cared about her and their one-year-old child anymore.

In passing the sentence, the magistrate among others said that the accused had committed a serious offence and that online scam cases are rampant and the accused had caused loss and difficulty to the victim.