SIBU: A 46-year-old man was sentenced to a fine of RM1,000, in default one month’s imprisonment, by the Magistrates’ Court here on Wednesday (March 11) to a charge of lodging a false police report.
Magistrate Romario Jonoi meted out the sentence on Paul Lim of Jalan Lada after he pleaded guilty to the charge, which was read and explained to him through an interpreter.
He understood the nature of the charge and the consequences of maintaining his plea of guilt.
The charge preferred against him stated that he did give information to a public servant, namely police constable Nelson Yong, which he knew or had reason to believe to be false, namely a police report, with the intention of causing the said public servant to use his lawful power to annoy representatives from the HSBC financial institution in Sibu.
The offence, committed at the Sibu Central Police Station on March 6 at about 11.59am, falls under Section 182 of the Penal Code which provides for an imprisonment of up to six months or fine of RM2,000 or both, upon conviction.
According to fact of the case, on March 6 at approximately 1pm, the complainant together with another police personnel interviewed and recorded the statement from the accused.
From the recorded statement, it was found that there was no snatch theft incident as reported by the accused.
The accused admitted that his identity card had been missing since Dec 2025 while he was on vacation in Thailand.
Subsequently, the complainant conducted a search on the accused and found two HSBC bank cards in his possession, which had earlier been reported missing.
The complainant then seized both bank cards. The investigation revealed that the accused had lodged a false police report.
Upon interrogation, the suspect admitted that he was not a victim of snatch theft as reported in his police report.
Investigation also revealed that the accused had a motive for providing the false information, as he had taken a personal loan from the HSBC and was facing difficulties in repaying the loan.
Therefore, the accused fabricated a story claiming that his bank cards had been robbed in order to give the excuse that he was unable to use the cards to make payments or carry out financial transactions.
The case was prosecuted by DPP Haris Danial Mohamed Hassan while the accused who was unrepresented by legal counsel, opted to pay the fine.
