SEREMBAN: Three people, including a woman, were given a jail sentence of between 20 and 44 months after pleading guilty to nine charges of dishonestly concealing RM270,000, part of proceeds from a phone scam, in their respective bank accounts.

       Muhammad Anas Mohd Amir Nasharuddin, 21, Zulaikha Roslan, 22, and Muhammad Syafirul Haidezeman, 31, did not contest the charges read to them before magistrate Norzaliza Tesmin.

       All three were charged under Section 424 of the Penal Code, which provides for a jail term of up to five years, a fine or both upon conviction.

       The trio were detained earlier this week in Penang after a technician reported that he was duped of RM414,000 in a phone scam.

       Muhammad Anas was slapped with four charges of concealing RM130,000 in his account which belonged to Mohammad Roslan Abd Manap, 57, between July 7 and 9.

       He committed the offences at a bank in Nilai, near here.

       Norzaliza fined him a total of RM34,000, failing which he will have to serve 10 to 12 months in jail for each charge.

       When Muhammad Anas told the court that he could not pay the fine, he was ordered to serve his jail term at the Seremban Prison.

       Zulaikha was slapped with two charges of having RM60,000 in her bank account, which also belonged to Mohammad Roslan.

       She too committed the offence at a bank in Nilai on July 7 and 8.

       She was fined RM16,000 in default 10 months’ jail for each charge.

       She was sent to the Sungai Udang Prison in Melaka as she was unable to pay the fine.

       Muhammad Syahfirul was slapped with three charges for dishonestly concealing RM80,000 in his bank account which also belonged to the same individual at a bank in Nilai on July 7 and 8.

       Norzaliza fined him a total of RM24,000 in default 10 to 12 months’ jail for each offence.

       He was also ordered to be sent to the Seremban Prison after he told the court he could not pay the fine.

       When contacted later, state Commercial Crime Investigation Department head Supt Aibee Ab Ghani said the court ordered the jail terms to run consecutively.

       This means Muhammad Anas will be jailed 44 months, Muhammad Syafirul, 32 months, and Zulaikha, 20 months.