Fadley Faisal
The High Court on March 6 dismissed a man’s application against sentence for theft from his employer even after he cited his contributions of 20 years of service with the Royal Brunei Air Force and as a frontliner battling the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chief Justice Dato Seri Paduka Steven Chong said that Muhammad Adiy Osmera bin Abdullah @ ED Osmera bin Tikus has no arguable case against the Magistrate’s Court sentence of six months’ jail.
The Chief Justice iterated that the applicant’s case was instead aggravated by the fact that he had attempted to cover it up.
Trial prosecutor Ahmad Firdaus Mohammad, who is also respondent in the appeal, revealed that the appellant struck up a plan with two other colleagues, who had been dealt with in court on their guilty pleas, to steal from Bandtree Sdn Bhd and obtain money.
On May 21, 2021, the trio took two vehicles and loaded four royal street lamp bases from Bandtree’s compound in Jerudong.
The appellant stayed back at the office compound while his accomplices drove away.
As his colleagues made their move, the appellant noticed a drone hovering above. He called one of them to bring back the stolen items, to no avail.
The appellant then called up his another colleague whom he knew would fly drones within the compound.
The drone owner admitted to flying it, and when he called the appellant in to see him at his office later, he told that he had recorded the trio’s actions earlier in the afternoon from a camera on the drone.
The appellant told the drone owner to erase the footage, and even offered to reward him, but was turned down.
The same afternoon, the duo who managed to make away with the stolen items sold them off for BND270 to a scrapyard and returned to the office to share the cash among the three of them.
The trio’s actions was made known to the management leading to a police report.
Members of the management managed to recover the stolen items from the scrapyard.
The trio were then served letters of suspension from work.
