QA: me MALU kan.....

Memalukan Malaysia saja.....

Published: Tuesday, 23 May, 2006, 09:57 AM Doha Time

Malaysian pleads guilty to credit card fraud

A Malaysian national pleaded guilty to five counts of credit card fraud at his second hearing in the criminal court yesterday. So Soon Teck, a 38-year-old cook who entered Qatar on a visit visa, admitted to possessing and using cloned credit cards, forging signatures and defrauding Atlas Jewellery of QR12,000 worth of goods. The bench, comprising Justices Salah El Sharif, Mohamed Tawarsi and Dr Usama El Shenawi, set May 29 for judgment and sentencing. Under Qatar’s new Criminal Code, formulated in 2004, So faces a maximum sentence of five years jail and/or a fine of QR10,000. “This is the first time we are trying credit card crimes, and also the first time we are trying a Malaysian national in our court,” Justice Salah said in chambers. He assured that in sentencing, the bench would take into consideration So’s guilty plea which had saved the court time and costs.

Asked about the plaster cast on his left forearm, So said he had sustained a fracture when he slipped in the bathroom in Doha’s Central Jail, where he is being held in custody together with six other Malaysians. So is part of a group of five Malaysian nationals arrested on November 19 last year after the Criminal Investigation and Evidence Department’s new Anti-Economic Crimes Department (ACD) acted on tip-offs set in motion by a local bank. The five, who were caught from two locations, had in their possession 165 forged credit cards which, they admitted, they had used to buy goods worth QR296,835 from 11 shops.

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=87972&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

~MT@Qatar
~~ Dafna, Doha

~~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~~