Company raided, 8 arrested for making fake work permits

KOTA KINABALU: Eight people aged between 20 and 65 were nabbed in Tawau, some 400km from here, for allegedly making fake work permits or documents for immigrants in Sabah.

Tawau district police chief, Asst Comm Fadil Marsus, said the eight people from Semporna, Tawau, Putatan and Sungai Petani in Kedah were believed to have been involved in this fake document processing business for a few months.

"They have a company – SR Manpower Resources Sdn Bhd – set up since last year, and are believed to have cheated more than 20 victims for the past several months," he said during a press conference in Tawau on Friday (Jan 11).

He said according to their investigations, the suspects, all believed to be locals, would charge an undocumented person RM800 each for the whole process and to get them their "work permits".

"The company also has agents or part-timers to help them recruit customers, and these agents would get a commission of RM200 for each customer brought in," said ACP Fadil.

He said they would cheat their customers, saying that their company issued documents that could be used instead of normal work permits issued by government authorities such as the Immigration Department.

He said authorities, including the Immigration Department and Home Ministry, have verified with police that they had never appointed any company or individual to issue such documents to anyone, especially to foreigners.

ACP Fadil said they had so far managed to locate 20 people who said they were victims of the scam.

"We believe there are more, but many are afraid to come forward as they have no travel or identification documents," he said.

He urged victims to come forward to assist in the investigation.

Police seized RM2,910 cash when they raided the company, along with 23 pieces of completed work passes (cards), documents of customers that included foreigners and other company documents.

The suspects will be investigated for cheating.- Star