KUCHING: The Magistrates’ Court here fined five men RM4,000 each, in default six months in prison, for possessing a stolen coil of cable belonging to Telekom Malaysia (TM).
Claint Douglas Jerebi, 27; Martin Stahlmann, 33; Mohammad Affendy Ahmad, 26; Muhammad Zulfiqar Khan Hasnin, 26; and Roberto Rivenerya Chen Ronald, 21, pleaded guilty before Magistrate Mason Jaro Lenya Barayan to the charge under Section 411 of the Penal Code, read together with Section 34 of the same Code.
Upon conviction, it provides for imprisonment of up to five years, or a fine, or both.
They were found in possession of the stolen cable in front of a house at Kampung Agas Baru, Jalan Matang around 5pm on April 3.
According to the case facts, a security guard was patrolling the Telekom cable area in Jalan Batu Kawa at around 7.05pm on March 4, when he discovered that the main manhole cover had been tampered with.
Upon checking, the guard found that a 400-pair cable belonging to TM had been cut and stolen, with losses estimated at around RM10,000.
Following that, the guard lodged a police report for further action.
Acting on public tip-off, a police team arrested all five men on April 3 for their suspected involvement in the cable theft.
Also seized from them were a Perodua Viva, a pile of cable insulators marked TM, short-cut lead insulators, two garbage baskets containing cable wires, two meat cleavers, three bolt cutters, a hacksaw, two pipe cutters, three sets of ropes, a wrench, six tensioning tools, a pair of pliers, a car tire spanner and an Allen key.
Investigations revealed that the men had committed the offence of possessing stolen property belonging to TM.
