Woman who tampered with passport fined

PEKAN NENAS: She was offered a lucrative job at a casino in the Philippines. However, the only catch was they were looking for female applicants below 30.

In order to qualify, the 36-year-old woman decided to tamper with her international passport by amending her date of birth and identity card dates.

However, she was caught by immigration at the Sultan Abu Bakar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Complex for allegedly tam- pering with her passport on July 30.

Sessions Court judge Zahilah Mohammad Yusoff then fined Liw Ya Chee, 36, RM3,000 for tampering with her passport.

Liw allegedly committed the offence as she wanted to be “younger” to gain employment overseas.

She allegedly altered the first page of her passport and altered her birth dates.

She was charged under Section 12(1)(a) of the Passport Act 1966.

In her mitigation, the woman alleged that she did not know it was an offence to alter her passport as she wanted to gain employment overseas to take care of her father who had had a stroke.

The woman paid the fine.

In other immigration-related cases at a special court at the Pekan Nenas immigration detention depot, six Malaysian employers and agents were fined a total of RM199,000 for hiring 32 illegal immigrants in their premises in Muar, Johor Baru and Batu Pahat.

The illegals were nabbed at various locations including several factories and a massage parlour.

All the locals, aged 20 to 40, paid the fines.