KUALA LUMPUR: A scrap metal worker was sentenced to six years’ jail and one stroke of the cane by the Sessions Court here on Wednesday (March 20) for robbing a Japanese woman and using her ATM card to buy four packets of curry powder earlier this month.

       Judge Norina Zainol Abidin meted out the sentence on C. Selvam, 35, after he pleaded guilty to the charge.

       Selvam, together with another person still at large, was charged with robbing Kayoko Shimada of her bag containing a bank ATM card, a passport, a mobile phone and RM100 at Lorong Pudu 14 in Bukit Bintang here at 7.10am on March 4.

       The charge, framed under Section 395 of the Penal Code provides for a prison sentence of up to 20 years and whipping, if convicted.

       The court also ordered the man to serve the jail sentence from the date of his arrest on March 13.

       Earlier, Deputy Public Prosecutor Muhammad Muhairi Mohamed Noh asked the court to impose an appropriate sentence as a lesson for the accused.

       In mitigation, Selvam, represented by lawyer Kalwant Singh, asked for leniency, saying that he had no previous criminal record and had a family to support.

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       "My client has promised not to repeat the offence. He used (the victim’s) bank card to buy four packets of curry powder for his family,” said the lawyer. - Bernama