Duo in Kuching jailed two months for theft

KUCHING (Jan 24): Two men were each sentenced to two months in jail by the Magistrates’ Court here today after they pleaded guilty to stealing four units of lorry batteries, a water pressure pump and several spanners.

Magistrate Syarifah Fatimah Azura Wan Ali, who meted out the sentence against Adril Naffiz Mustapha, 30, and Mohammed Fitri Hajeli, 35, also ordered for their jail sentence to take effect from today.

The duo were charged under Section 380 of the Penal Code read together with Section 34 of the same Code which provides for a jail term for up to 10 years and a fine.

They committed the offence with two other men who are still at large at a house in Jalan Datuk Stephen Yong, Batu Kawa here at around 8.27am on Nov 26, 2023.

Based on the facts of the case, the complainant was told by his worker on Nov 27, 2023 that a few items that were kept in front of his house were missing.

The complainant then checked his neighbour’s closed-circuit television (CCTV) recording and discovered that an unknown man had entered his house area with a black car.

Further checks conducted by the complainant found that among the missing items were four units of lorry batteries, a water pressure pump and several spanners, resulting in a loss of about RM2,500.

A police report was lodged that led to the arrest of the duo on Jan 20, 2024.

During the investigation, both men had admitted to stealing the items and had sold them to a scrapstore at a price of RM235.

They also admitted to have divided the money earned from the sale of the stolen items among the four of them.

Besides that, there was also a CCTV recording showing their actions on the day of the incident.

ASP Rogayah Rosli prosecuted the case while the duo were unrepresented by counsels.