BINTULU: Ex-security guard Kiprawi Gani, 39, was sentenced to eight years and nine months’ imprisonment with seven strokes of the rotan for cheating staff of the company he worked for.
PAYING THE PRICE: Kiprawi walking out from the court in tears escorted by Asri (right).
Kiprawi pleaded guilty to seven counts of cheating before magistrate court judge Ahmad Dzulfadzli Hamdan yesterday.
The offence comes under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating and dishonestly inducing a delivery of property.
When the sentence was read by the judge, the accused cried and asked for forgiveness as it was his first offence.
Kiprawi asked the court to shorten the period of imprisonment since he was unemployed and had to support his wife and three young children — the eldest being two years old and the youngest four months.
However the court stood by the decision so it could serve as an example to the public.
Dzulfadzli advised the public not to break the law by cheating others even when they encountered financial problems.
The accused was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment with one stroke of the rotan for each count.
According to the report, the accused was first arrested in Miri on Sept 7, 2009 when he had resigned as a security guard with an oil and gas company where he had misused his power.
The first report made against him by a complainant was on Aug 14, 2009 at 5.30pm. There were altogether seven to 10 complainants.
The accused had allegedly used photocopies of their identity cards to apply for loans from a money lending institution without their consent.
All the victims were staff of the oil and gas company. They had been asked by the accused — working as a security guard at that time — to give him photocopies of their ICs for him to make a pass for them to enter the premises.
The accused abused his powers by using the photocopies to apply for personal loans.
The victims only realised they were being exploited when they tried to apply for loans for education and medical purposes from other financial institutions but found that they were on the CTOS (Credit Tip Off Service) blacklist.
According to the CTOS, they had applied for loans with other money lending institutions, using the accused as guarantor.
On being informed that the guarantor was the accused, they realised that he had misused their ICs as they had not taken out any loan.
Investigation officer Insp Insp Noor Asri Ibrahim said the police believed there must be a mastermind behind the cheating syndicate, and are looking for accomplices.
It is believed that the accused has a good relationship with the manager of Bintulu branch of the money lending institution who had since been sacked.
“The money lender’s headquarters didn’t even know about the illegal transactions,” said Asri.
The accused committed all the offences in 2004.
Inspector Mohd Megat Mohd Khairul prosecuted while the accused was unrepresented.