Cheating suspect nabbed when trying to collect ‘balance’

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BINTULU: A man, in his 50s, attempting to deceive a restaurant owner by using a fake lottery ticket was instead apprehended by the owner himself at noon yesterday.

The incident began at 8pm Tuesday when the restaurant owner was approached by the suspect asking for help to cash his winning lottery ticket as he had no identity card for the purpose.

The suspect asked for RM4,000 from the owner, but the latter gave him RM2,000 as a deposit; the balance to be given after the lottery ticket was cashed.

The suspect handed over the ‘winning’ ticket to the shop owner who went to a nearby lottery premises to claim the win, but was told the lottery tickets’ numbers were not in the system.

The two tickets were supposed to win RM2,500 each to give a total of RM5,000.

Upon realising that he had been fooled, the shop owner lodged a police report at about 11am yesterday against the suspect from Sabah.

The suspect unexpectedly returned to the shop yesterday afternoon to collect the balance of RM2,000; and it led to his arrest by the shop owner.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Bintulu police chief Superintendent Madang Usat said the suspect had been apprehended for investigation into cheating which comes under Section 420.

He said the complainant’s report led police to the suspect’s rented house where they found two citizens without valid documents and detained them for investigation.

Supt Madang advised the public not to be easily fooled by those claiming they need help to cash lottery tickets.

The ‘winning’ lottery ticket is actually a fake, he pointed out.

“Don’t simply hand over cash if asked to do so,” he advised.