GEORGE TOWN: With 21.6% of the robbery cases reported in 2021 being false reports, the police have cautioned that wasting their manpower and resources is a serious offence.

       State police chief Comm Datuk Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain said out of the 463 robbery cases reported in 2021, a total of 100 were false reports involving various motives including loss of MyKad and evading debts.

       “Out of the 100 cases, 74 cases involved loss of MyKad, eight involved misuse of money, four were trying to evade paying debts, five claimed loss of passport and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) card, three due to a fight and misunderstanding, two were for skipping work, two were false insurance claims, one fake pregnancy and one for failure to get family blessings to marry.

       “The percentage of false report cases received last year was 21.6%,” he told a press conference on Friday (March 25) after the 215th Police Day celebrations at the north-east district police headquarters in Jalan Patani.

       Comm Mohd Shuhaily said there were 11 false report cases involving robbery recorded during the first two months of this year (Jan and Feb).

       “The 11 cases involved six cases of loss of MyKad, two for loss of passport and one each for false insurance claims, investment fraud and misuse of property.

       “We are wasting our time, logistics and resources investigating cases that did not happen.

       “This is a serious offence and those found making false reports can be investigated under Section 182 of the Penal Code which provides for imprisonment of up to six months or a fine of RM2,000 or both upon conviction," he said.

       Comm Mohd Shuhaily said the high number of robbery cases reported in Penang had given the impression that the state is unsafe.

       “However, the fact is 21.6% of them were false reports,” he said.