| Fadley Faisal |
A LOCAL man was handed a six-year jail term by the Intermediate Court yesterday, after he pleaded guilty to making counterfeit money, and possessing and using it.
Sudiman bin Mat Yassin, 37, was found to have counterfeited three pieces of BND500 notes, six pieces of BND100 notes, seven pieces of BND50 notes, 10 pieces of BND20 notes, one piece of BND10 note, 14 pieces of RM50 notes and nine pieces of RM10 notes, sometime between February and March this year using an HP colour printer at his office when working his 1am to 4am shift.
DPP Qhairul Azim bin Nayan further informed the court that the defendant did this while his colleagues were asleep.
The defendant used genuine money from his office to print the counterfeits on both sides of an A4 paper before cutting them individually.
On March 12 around 10pm, the defendant met up with a man at the Jerudong Park Playground car park and used a counterfeit BND500 note to pay for a toy gun worth BND280.
The victim realised that the money was fake and immediately lodged a police report after closing the deal with the defendant.
The full scale of the defendant’s crimes was eventually unravelled when a woman went to purchase fuel for her car at the Tanjong Nangka filling station just before 11pm on August 25.
The pump attendant, suspicious of the BND500 note handed to her by the woman, went to examine it at the office under UV light.
Upon determining the note to be fake, the attendant filed a police report, prompting investigations that led to the discovery that the woman had received the money from the defendant. It was also found that the woman came to know of the defendant via the AsiaFreeChat.com chat site.
Following investigations, CID police summoned the defendant to their office and arrested him. Officers found six pieces of BND100 notes, seven pieces of BND50 notes, 10 pieces of BND20 notes, one piece of BND10 note, 14 pieces of RM50 notes, and nine pieces of RM10 notes – all counterfeits – in his car parked at the CID office.
Judge Pengiran Masni binti Pengiran Haji Bahar, while acknowledging the seriousness of the offences and deeming that they warrant a custodial sentence, took into account the defendant’s guilty plea and clean prior criminal record, eventually deciding that a six-year imprisonment is an appropriate punishment.