KUALA LUMPUR: A man who tried to smuggle two Indonesian men into the country on a speedboat mistook Singapore for Kelantan.
According to the Singapore-based English daily The Straits Times, the man thought he had arrived in Pasir Puteh when the speedboat was approaching a landmass, only to realise his mistake.
However, it was too late, as they had already been spotted by Singapore's Police Coast Guard (PCG), who gave them a chase for entering Singaporean waters at around 5.30am on April 25.
The pursuit lasted for 17 minutes before the man's speedboat capsized from taking on too much water.
The man who was only identified as Afendy today (July 12) was sentenced to 22 weeks' jail and three strokes of the cane after pleading guilty to two charges under the Immigration Act and a third charge of navigating his speedboat in a manner so rash as to endanger human life.
The report added that another two charges under the Act were taken into consideration for his sentencing.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Intan Suhaily Abu Bakar said that while the harm caused in this case is low, Afendy's culpability is high.
The PCG, Suhaily said, had turned on their sirens and blinkers to signal for the accused to stop but he ignored the warnings and chose to flee.
She added that the PCG craft had to manoeuvre in a zig-zag manner to pursue the accused and the chase ended only when the speedboat capsized.
Afendy, who was unrepresented in court, pleaded for leniency in mitigation, on the grounds that he has family to support.
Meanwhile, the two Indonesians that Affendy sought smuggled into Malaysia who were identified as Muhli and Sanapiah, aged 37 and 32 respectively, were sentenced to six weeks' imprisonment and three strokes of the cane.