Khoo (second right), Ang (second left) and other officers showing the seized passports to the media after the press conference.
MIRI: The police here on Wednesday night nabbed a 38-year-old female clerk of an oil palm company to assist in investigations into an alleged criminal breach of trust involving the sum of RM312,840.
In a press conference yesterday, city police chief ACP Khoo Leng Huat said the woman was arrested by a team of police from the Commercial Crime Section at a house in Bandar Baru Permyjaya at 8.30pm.
“The woman had been absent from work at the oil palm company since Nov 1,” said Khoo.
Present at the press conference was Miri head of Crime Prevention and Community Safety Department, DSP Ang Seow Aun.
Khoo said the incident was discovered by the company’s other staff who noticed a total of 396 foreign passports kept inside a safety box the suspect was entrusted with had gone missing.
He also found several falsified government receipts of payment for work permits.
The arrest was made following the police report lodged by the company’s manager at 12pm on Wednesday.
Police also recovered and seized 278 Indonesian passports, three bank books (under the suspect’s name), a bank card and a bank-in slip from the suspect.
It is said that the suspect had been working with the company for the past nine years. According to the investigation, it took the suspect nine days to commit the embezzlement before going absent from work on Nov 1.
“Right after the company’s manager was told of the missing passports which involved seven oil palm estates on Nov 4 by his other staff, the company conducted an internal investigation including checking the CCTV footage before lodging a police report on Nov 9,” said Khoo.
CCTV footage showed the suspect holding a plastic bag suspected to contain the missing passports when she came out of the office. The charge is framed under Section 408 of the Penal Code. The suspect is remanded until Nov 14 to facilitate investigation on the case.