Two Indonesians were sentenced to jail for theft and money laundering after they stole over BND8,500 from their workplace and transferred the money home.
Senior Magistrate Dewi Norlelawati binti Haji Abdul Hamid on Wednesday sentenced Jajang Rio Basri, 28, to three years in prison, while Retno Putri Anjarwati, 24, received a two-year jail term. Both had pleaded guilty to their charges.
The court heard from Deputy Public Prosecutor Atikah Husaini that Jajang, a kitchen helper at a restaurant, and Retno, a waitress at the same establishment, systematically stole money from the restaurant’s daily earnings between December 2024 and February. Jajang admitted to taking cash from a container used to store daily sales, stealing about BND1,000 each time on multiple occasions, totaling to BND8,500.
Their crime was uncovered on February 11, when the restaurant manager was alerted by a remittance service about large transactions made by the pair. Suspicious of the unusually high sums transferred despite their modest salaries, she lodged a police report, leading to their arrest.
Investigations revealed that Jajang and Retno had remitted the stolen funds to their personal bank accounts in Indonesia through a remittance service in Tutong. On January 3, Jajang transferred BND3,000 to Indonesia, followed by another BND3,000 jointly with Retno on January 9. On February 3, they sent another BND4,000.
The court was told that the stolen funds were never recovered. – Fadley Faisal
