KOTA KINABALU: A woman faces six cheating charges at the magistrates’ court here yesterday in connection with the purchase of houses under the People Housing Project (PPR) in Meruntum, Putatan.
Fairieza De Souza Mohd Firdaus, 31, who appeared before magistrate Mohd Faiz Omar, pleaded not guilty to each of the charges framed under Section 420 of the Penal Code.
The indictment carries a jail term of up to 10 years or with a fine and whipping upon conviction.
On the first and sixth charges, the accused was alleged to have cheated Lester Justin, 32, and Mc Cainez Ginda, 29, respectively, by saying that she could help the victims in purchasing houses at Meruntum PPR housing in Penampang on June 19.
On the second charge, the accused allegedly cheated one Abd Majid Taman, 31, for the same purpose at Jalan Putatan-Lokawi in Penampang on May 25. Meanwhile, on the third to the fifth charges, the accused was alleged to have cheated Khalid Azmi, 48, Irene Simon Girayu, 63, and Doris Ignatius, 36, respectively, on a similar basis, at a different restaurant in Putatan between June 13 and 23.
All the victims were allegedly induced by the accused to hand over RM1,400 each as deposits for buying the house.
Counsel PJ Pereira, who represented the accused, told the court that his client had just given birth to a baby girl two months ago and prayed for RM1,000 bail for each of the charges to be granted to Fairieza while prosecuting officer Inspector Jakariya Jupakkal had offered RM5,000 bail for each charge with two local sureties.
The court set Oct 15 this year for case management and released the accused on RM1,000 bail with two local sureties for each charge, pending disposal of the case.
In the meantime, the accused also faces another four counts of similar offences during her arraignment at another magistrates’ court here on Aug 27.
Fairieza and Nurie Azzarina Noor Abdullah, 29, was jointly charged with cheating four persons aged between 28 and 35 by saying that they (the accused) could manage the purchase of a PPR house and induced the victims to hand over to them RM1,400 each through a man.
The offences framed under Section 420 of the Penal Code were allegedly committed at a shopping mall here between June 26 and 27 this year.
The court fixed Sept 15, 17 and 23 this year to re-mention the cases and granted the accused RM2,000 bail with RM1,000 deposited with two local sureties on each of the charges.