Photo shows the Kuching Court Complex. — Photo by Chimon Upon
KUCHING (Jan 6): The Magistrates’ Court here today fined a 20-year-old youth RM1,000 in default two months’ jail for voluntarily assisting in disposing a mobile phone belonging to her former employer.
Magistrate Zaiton Anuar meted out the sentence against the youth offender on her own guilty plea after hearing her social report from the Welfare Department.
The girl was charged under Section 414 of the Penal Code, which provides for a jail term of up to seven years, or a fine, or both upon conviction.
She committed the offence at a telecommunications shop in Wisma Saberkas here around 11.30am on Sept 1, 2022.
Based on the brief facts of case, the 26-year-old employer realised that her phone had been stolen upon seeing it being sold on a Facebook marketplace site by an account named ‘Ian Wenceskaus’.
The complainant then checked the mobile phone’s International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number and confirmed that the phone advertised was hers as the IMEI number matched her lost phone.
The phone had cost around RM2,000.
She lodged a police report and acting on the information given, the youth offender was arrested on Oct 27, 2022.
Upon investigation, it was found that the youth offender had voluntarily assisted in disposing the mobile phone although she knew it was stolen property.
Insp Merylene Lindan Andrew Mang prosecuted the case while the youth offender was unrepresented by counsel.