After the hearing of the case was completed at the Bandar Seri Begawan Magistrate’s Court, the defendant a policeman Lance Corporal 4555 Sahlan bin Haji Mat Sahat, 39, was found guilty on two charges for cheating under Section 420 of the Penal Code, Chapter 22 and one charge for attempting to cheat under Section 420 read with 511 of the same act.
The complaint against the defendant was triggered when one foreign female victim lodged a complaint to the Anti-Corruption Bureau ACB in an incident on the 27th of April 2015, at about 6:45 pm, in the vicinity of Jalan Kilanas. The victim was stopped by the defendant who drove a Toyota Soluna bearing registration number BS3761. The defendant told the victim that a stone had flown from the victim’s car tire and had cracked the defendant’s car windscreen. The defendant demanded the victim to pay $400 for the damage and also said that he was a police personnel. After negotiation and inducement, the victim then agreed to give the defendant $50 and the defendant said that it was not a bribe.
Investigation conducted by ACB found that there were another four victims cheated by the defendant with the same modus operandi by dishonestly cheating the victims to pay money by telling them that a stone had flown from their cars and had cracked his windscreen. All these happened on different dates, at different times and places namely at the vicinity of Jalan Belimbing, Jalan Batu Bersurat, Jalan Bunut and Jalan Kilanas sometimes between April and May 2015. One of the victims was a Permanent Resident, two Malaysians and a Thai national. ACB investigation also found that the defendant had committed another offense, driving a vehicle with an expired road-tax on all four incidents, and offence under the Road Traffic Act.
Earlier on the 7th December last year the defendant was charged at the Bandar Seri Begawan Magistrate’s Court on four charges under Section 420 of the Penal Code Chapter 22 for offences of attempting to cheat a victim and cheating another three on different dates, at different times and places and four charges under Section 8, 1 of Road Traffic Act (Chapter 68) for driving a Toyota Soluna with registration number BS3761 with an expired road-tax dated 30 April 2013. During the prosecution, the defendant pleaded not guilty to deceiving all the victims. However, the defendant pleaded guilty to driving the Toyota Soluna with the expired road-tax on those four incidents. The hearing commenced with the Prosecution calling 8 witnesses.
On 20th January 2022, the defendant was brought to ACB premise for court prosiding for the judgment held virtually by Senior Magistrate Hajah Ervy Sufitrianan binti Haji Abdul Rahman. In her judgement, she was satisfied that the prosecution had proved the case beyond reasonable doubt and had disbelieved the defendant’s defence. The Magistrate had convicted the defendants for offences under Section 420 of the Penal Code Chapter 22 and ordered him to be remanded pending sentencing today, 22 January 2022. The defendant was also brought to the Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Saleha Hospital for PCR test before remanded.
Source: Radio Television Brunei