Fadley Faisal

A local woman was jailed by the Magistrate’s Court after she pleaded guilty to stealing money from her mother’s bank account to the tune of almost BND70,000 and money laundering charges, for spending the stolen money. Her cousin who assisted in the theft was also jailed.

Nur Sabihah binti Haji Zulfikri, 25, was handed two years and eight months’ jail while Hajah Siti Khadizah binti Bujang, 38, got eight months’ jail. DPP Muhd Qamarul Affyian bin Abdul Rahman revealed in court that Hajah Siti Khadizah asked her cousin Nur Sabihah to lend her some money. The cousin said she did not have any and suggested to borrow from her mother. Hajah Siti Khadizah was reluctant and said she had no courage to ask her mother.

This was when Nur Sabihah suggested Hajah Siti Khadizah to get Nur Sabihah’s mother’s bank account details, to which Nur Sabihah would register for online banking and through an app will transfer money to Hajah Siti Khadizah’s account. Hajah Siti Khadizah sought help to ask a friend who works at the bank holding Nur Sabihah’s mother’s account. Hajah Siti Khadizah reasoned her request with the story that her best friend needed to deposit some money into her mother’s account, the mother being abroad and could not be reached.

Hajah Siti Khadizah also said she forgot to bring the bank book with her to make the deposit. The bank staff then gave the account details to Hajah Siti Khadizah.

The account details were passed to Nur Sabihah who used them to register for online banking, getting access to her mother’s account and made 15 transactions from October 2019 to March 2020 totalling to BND67,800 to Hajah Siti Khadizah’s account. By including transfer fees, the victim suffered a total loss of BND67,960.

On March 7, the victim and her husband went to the bank branch to do a routine transaction of depositing money into her savings account. When her husband was updating the bank books, the bank staff informed him that monies have been transferred to a different account in another bank. As he, nor the complainant, transferred any money to a different account, he was suspicious. Initially, they thought it to be a banking error. Preliminary queries led them to their daughter. On March 9, the victim lodged a report at Sengkurong Police Station. Police arrested the duo on March 11 for questioning.

Nur Sabihah admitted her acts and also having spent the money by going on shopping sprees and treating her friends.

Hajah Siti Khadizah admitted to having helped to obtain the bank account details and she said she gave her friend BND100 for her assistance. She spent the money for her own personal expenses including a trip to Kuala Lumpur with her daughter. Police investigations revealed Nur Sabihah spent the monies on designer shoes, handbags, clothes, watches, video games and lavishly treating her friends which included iPhone 11 and trips to Indonesia. The police seized a large number of these items. The monies recovered amounted to BND8,200 and 16 million Indonesian Rupiahs which Nur Sabihah converted while in Indonesia.

Magistrate Dewi Norlelawati binti Haji Abdul Hamid presided over the case.