Man fined for fraudulently possessing cash

KOTA KINABALU: A man was fined RM100, in default, one day’s jail by the Magistrate’s Court here yesterday for fraudulently possessing cash in his bank account after giving his bank card to a male acquaintance in order to get some commission.

Magistrate Stephanie Sherron Abbie fined Muhammad Saffri Mahhadin, 27, after he admitted to having RM3,700 cash in his bank account but failed to explain from where he obtained the money.

The offence was committed at a furniture shop here between July 27 and 28, 2020.

The prosecution told the court that the victim saw a personal loan advertisement and he was asked to make payment before the loan application could be processed.

The victim had banked in the money to an account under the accused’s name but later found out that there was no such personal loan.

In pleading for a lenient sentence, the unrepresented accused said that he is currently unemployed and he came from Kuala Lumpur.

Before passing the sentence, the court asked the accused that since he flew all the way from Kuala Lumpur, whether he knew what case he was facing yesterday and the accused answered, “No”.

The magistrate then asked the prosecution whether the investigating officer had recorded the accused’s statement and the prosecution said yes.

The prosecution explained in the statement stated that the accused had given his bank card to one Izat whom the accused only met once in order to get RM300 commission.

The statement also stated that the accused did not know anything about the person named Izat.

When further asked by the court, the accused admitted that Izat was only an acquaintance and the bank account no longer existed since investigation was conducted on the accused.