By Dorcas Ting
KUCHING, June 13: A 27-year-old car wash worker was sentenced to 15 months in prison and one stroke of the cane by the Magistrates’ Court today after he took off with a customer’s SUV and tried to sell it online for just RM3,000.
The accused, Muhammad Hafis Sulaiman, pleaded guilty before Magistrate Mason Jaro Lenya Barayan to a charge of criminal breach of trust.
The incident took place at a car wash in Batu Kawa, where the customer had left his Toyota Harrier for a thorough cleaning. He was told the process would take a week, and he handed over the keys to the accused before leaving.
However, when the car owner returned after seven days to collect the vehicle, it was nowhere to be found. The shop manager told him the vehicle had been taken without permission by Muhammad Hafis, who had also been absent from work for three days.
Police were alerted, and investigations led to the arrest of the suspect by a special police unit on June 6 in Kampung Sibakar, a village near the Malaysia-Indonesia border.
Investigators later discovered that the accused had driven the SUV to the village for personal use and had tried to sell it via WhatsApp for RM3,000. The advertisement was eventually deleted before any transaction occurred.
The court found that the accused had abused the trust placed in him, turning what should have been a routine car cleaning job into a criminal act for personal profit.
He was convicted under Section 406 of the Penal Code, which pertains to the criminal breach of trust involving property entrusted to an individual. — DayakDaily
