:Keeping stolen items is wrong: Ramli

TAWAU: Members of the public are told to report to the district police should they had suspiciously purchased stolen items as it would be an offence for them not to do so.

Acting district police chief Supt. Haji Ramli Ali Mat said they had successfully arrested a number of individuals believed to be involved in house breaking cases in the district in the past two years and they are now investigating all the house breaking cases recorded.

`Public who purchased suspicious items need to report to us because if we find such items in their possession, they are liable to be charged under Section 411 of the Penal Code which carries a jail term of no less than six months and fine’, he explained.

Ramli also said that they are conducting investigation based on the information obtained from those detained and believe they can solve a number of house breaking cases soon.

In another development, Ramli also urges employers not to take risk should they uses foreign workers without proper documents as the authority is at the brink of organizing a major operation against illegal immigrant in the district. He said that the operation will begin any time soon as the needed manpower from `out of the district are now here’ fro such purpose. At the same time, he also said that illegal immigrant staying in the district to return home peacefully before the operation began as they now could go home with their possessions. `We are not inhuman but we will detain those suspected illegal immigrant during the coming operation without remorse and I have extended our warning’, he stressed.

The advice asking illegal immigrant to return home voluntarily is appropriate as a number of illegal immigrants caught during the last Ops. Nyah II in March 2002 blamed the authorities involved for having a `cold heart’ when executing their duties.