Respite for Ex-MP in dud cheque case

The High Criminal Court of Appeals reduces ex-MP’s sentence from two years to three months

A former female parliamentarian got her two year imprisonment sentence reduced to three months in a dud cheque case involving over BD60, 000.

However, the woman got her one-year imprisonment sentence upheld yesterday in a case of issuing a dud cheque for over BD24, 000 to a financial institution, while her right to appeal against another eight-month imprisonment sentence in a different case was dropped. According to court files, the total imprisonment sentences the ex-MP has to serve now, including the reduced sentence that was announced yesterday is one year and 11 months.

In the trial, it was revealed that a local financial institution lodged a complaint against the defendant for issuing a BD37, 529 cheque, which would later bounce as there was no enough balance in her account. The second case involved the same crime committed against the same victim, who received a BD24, 602 dud cheque from the defendant. She appealed against the one year imprisonment sentence issued against her, but the court rejected her plea.

As for the third case, the defendant was found guilty of committing the same offence against another financial institution, which complained to the authorities after receiving a dud cheque (amount not announced) from the defendant, who was previously slapped with an eight-month imprisonment sentence for it.

Quite similar to the other two cases, she appealed against the verdict, but her right to appeal was dropped by the court this time, as she didn’t show up on the date of the trial. Sources informed that the woman faces 10 similar cases that were yet to be settled in the courts, in addition to a traffic violation case.