Couple face jail terms for fraud

JAKARTA (JP): A state prosecutor asked the Central Jakarta District Court in two separate sessions yesterday to sentence a husband and wife to one year and two years of imprisonment, respectively for fraud.

Prosecutor Baskara said Kwee Sumarlin, 49, and The Diana, 49, of Mampang Prapatan, East Jakarta, violated Article 378 of the Criminal Code on deception.

"The defendants wrote bank checks, which turned out to be empty, as a means of payment for 2,888,311 grams of gold jewelry valued at Rp 81.38 million (US$31,511)," he said.

"At first the wife bought some gold jewelry from Kohar and promised to pay them with bank checks," he said.

"But each time Kohar tried to cash the checks the funds in the account were not sufficient," he said.

The prosecutor said he asked for a stiffer sentence for The Diana because she was the initiator of the deceit. Her husband only helped her conduct the scam.

Baskara also said that when Kohar asked for the jewelry back, it turned out that both defendants had sold them through their own jewelry shop in Mampang. (12)