Kota Kinabalu: A company director from Johor was on Monday sentenced to a total of 15 years’ jail and ordered to be given nine lashes of the cane on seven counts of cheating six contractors here amounting to RM660,000 over purported projects.
Mohammad Shah Soep, 41, pleaded guilty to all the charges framed against him.
Magistrate Jessica Ombou Kakayun sentenced Shah to 24 months’ jail and one stroke of the cane on each of the first six counts.
Shah admitted to cheating one Azhmi Salim of RM20,000, Tan Kai Ngin of RM285,000, Zainal Razak of RM100,000 and RM15,000, Dinsia Marikan of RM100,000 and Yong Boon Kee of RM120,000 at separate locations here between Feb 25, 2020 and Nov 4, the same year.
On the seventh count, he was jailed three years and fined RM3,000 or six months’ jail plus three lashes of the cane by Senior Assistant Registrar Abdurrahman Abrar Jarni, who sat as a magistrate, to cheating one Agang Insi of RM20,000 on Feb 25, 2020 at a hotel here.
Each charge under Section 420 of the Penal Code carries a jail term of between one year and 10 years, with whipping and liability of a fine on conviction.
The courts ordered Shah to serve the jail terms consecutively.
Earlier, the court heard from the prosecution that Shah cheated the victims by offering them purported projects of replacing streetlights around the State as well cleaning works at the Sipitang Oil and Gas Industrial Park (Sogip), with returns amounting to millions of ringgit.
In offering the so-called projects, Shah requested the victims to pay a sum of money to get award letters of such projects, said the prosecution.
Shah was arrested by police following reports lodged by the victims who realised of being cheated after they could not reach Shah after months of waiting, the court heard.
Unrepresented, Shah requested for leniency and applied for his sentence to be run concurrently and told the court that he has small children.
The prosecution pressed for a deterrent sentence.
Inspectors Albert Basiri Navind Kumar Vijayan prosecuted.
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