Woman gets 128 months’ jail time for cheating would-be travellers

A statue of Lady Justice. — DayakDaily.com file pic. // Photo: Pixabay

By Jaythaleela K

MIRI, June 29: A 37-year-old woman was jailed for 128 months after she pleaded guilty to 11 charges of cheating five individuals of a total of RM87,900 in a tour package scam, from 2017 to 2018.

In the first courtroom, Magistrate Leona Dominic Mojiliu meted out sentence after the accused Lenney Valerie Gundu Tangai pleaded guilty to nine charges read out by the court interpreter.

Lenney was charged under Section 420 of the Penal Code which carries a maximum jail term of 10 years, whipping and a fine, upon conviction.

Meanwhile, in another courtroom, Magistrate Wan Farrah Farriza Wan Ghazali, ordered the sentences for the tenth and eleventh charges (24 months each) to run concurrently but consecutively from other sentences that the accused will serve.

No sentence of whipping was imposed pursuant to Section 289(a) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) as the accused is female.

Magistrate Wan Farrah has also ordered the trial to be vacated and cash bail to be refunded.

According to the charge sheets, Lenney was charged with offering a non-existent tour package mainly to Cairo, Egypt to five victims from the period of June 2017 to January 2018.

The accused, who was represented, had appealed to the court to impose a lower sentence with the sentences to run concurrently with effect from the date of remand which was January 24, 2020. — DayakDaily