Three women held over PPRT home purchase fraud
Published on: Saturday, July 04, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: Three local women believed involved in duping people into thinking they are sales agents for the Hardcore Poor Housing Programme (PPRT) in Meruntum have been detained. The two Kadazans and a Chinese, aged between 25 and 30s, were picked up for questioning last Wednesday, the same day a police report related to the case was lodged by a 29-year-old civil servant. State Commercial Crime Investigation Department Supt Md Razif Alang Mat Jaya said, Friday, said a tip off led to the detention of the women who were brought in by a team from the Penampang Commercial Crime Investigation Department led by Insp. Norhazlin Muzid.
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He said the same team also found and confiscated an undisclosed amount of cash and various house application documents believed linked to the house purchase scam the same day."According to Investigating Officer Insp. Rommy Abdul Rani from the Penampang Commercial Crime Investigation Department, nine police reports had been lodged to date," said Md Razif, adding that investigations are done under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating. He said the detention came after a 29-year-old Dusun civil servant lodged a report at the Penampang police headquarters at about 2pm last Wednesday. "The man said he saw a poster advertising the Meruntum PPRT sold at RM6,200 a unit and decided to call the number displayed on the poster after which he met a woman who claimed to be a sales agent for the PPRT housing," he said.
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"The man gave the woman RM1,400 as advance booking. However, he did not get any further updates on the status of his housing application prompting him to lodge a report. The modus operandi involved to advertise the PPRT house sold at a price of RM62,000 a unit.
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"The unsuspecting victim would be brought to meet the suspects who claim to be agents and asked to pay RM1,400 as advance booking for the application. "Each agent will get a commission of up to RM900 for each booking," he said, adding that checks with the Penampang District Council showed that they have never appointed any individual or company to act as sales agents for the PPRT houses. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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