Fadley Faisal
The Magistrate’s Court yesterday sentenced an army personnel to 18 months’ jail for stealing an ATM debit card and cash from the ATM belonging to his roommate at a barrack at the Sungai Akar camp.
The court also ordered the victim to be compensated with BND200, or face an additional week’s jail.
SLD 54155 Abdul Wafi bin Md Nordin, 19, was attached to the Royal Guards Regiment, Royal Brunei Land Force since January 2022, according to the prosecution.
Prosecutor Sabrina binti Haji Mahmud informed the court that on September 21 at 5pm the victim, the defendant’s roommate at the barracks, had gone to the bank ATM machine at a shopping centre when he realised his card was missing from his wallet.
He checked his account through the online application and discovered that BND200 had been withdrawn from his account.
He called the bank and found out that the withdrawal was made on the same day at 4.55pm.
The victim lodged a report at the Berakas Police Station.
Investigations led to unearthing the defendant’s doing.
Magistrate Dewi Norlelawati binti Haji Abdul Hamid heard that the defendant struck at 9pm on September 20. The defendant was in the room at the barracks while the victim and other colleagues were out on their evening roll call.
He went through the victim’s backpack inside the wardrobe and took his wallet.
He came across the ATM card. He then joined the others for the evening roll call. The defendant then asked the victim for his date of birth.
The following day, the defendant went to the bank’s ATM machine at a mall and keyed in the victim’s date of birth as its PIN number.
Finding it successful, he withdrew BND200 from the account. That evening at roll call, the defendant returned the ATM card to the victim’s backpack. However, he did not return it to the victim’s wallet.
The defendant admitted that he spent the money on tyres for his car and other personal expenses.
The defendant pleaded forgiveness and leniency in considering sentence from the court.
In his mitigation, the defendant pleaded for forgiveness and the court’s utmost leniency in considering his sentence.
Magistrate Dewi Norlelawati condemned the defendant’s actions and saw the need for deterrence.
The magistrate said, “The defendant should have set an exemplary role and being a uniformed personnel, he has a duty to protect the public. The action of the defendant has damaged the reputation of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces.”
