Fadley Faisal
A former government servant was sentenced to six years and six months’ jail by the Intermediate Court yesterday after a trial on being convicted for cheating an Indian national for money into believing that he would assist the victim in applying for a permanent resident status.
Judge Radin Safiee bin Radin Mas Basiuni found 61-year-old Zaini bin Haji Mirasan guilty on nine counts of cheating and one for forgery.
The judge convicted the defendant on being satisfied with evidence and the whole of the prosecution’s case beyond reasonable doubt.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Raihan Nabilah binti Haji Ahmad Ghazali’s charges against the defendant was framed out of the Anti-Corruption Bureau’s investigations which revealed that the defendant, who at the time of the committing of the offence, was suspended from work as a religious teacher at the Islamic Studies Department of the Ministry of Religious Affairs following a disciplinary proceeding against him.
It was further unearthed that he had on several occasions cheated an Indian national, who had been working and living in Brunei since 1998. The defendant cheated the victim into believing that he could assist the victim in applying for a permanent resident status, inducing him to pay the defendant a total sum of BND28,850, in the pretext of facilitating the process of obtaining his permanent resident status in Brunei Darussalam.
When the defendant committed the offences, he had told the victim that he could assist in applying for a permanent resident status through a special process without going through the Immigration and National Registration Department.
In the process, the defendant forged official documents bearing designated signatories of high-ranking government officials which the defendant used to convince the victim in his cheating acts.
