Six youths hauled up by City Hall

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SIX men were nabbed on Tuesday night in front of the Old Town White Coffee outlet in 4 1/2 mile, Jalan Cheras Kuala Lumpur, after being caught red-handed for illegally touting customers who parked their cars there.

The six culprits were caught at around 9.50pm by officers from the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) enforcement and safety department.

When StarMetro revisited this area before the raid, these touts were still boldly harassing customers as they pranced up and down the road.

One of the men approached this writer as soon as the car was parked. He even showed this writer a letter purportedly bearing the letterhead of DBKL and apparently with the signature of the DBKL licensing department director, claiming to have been given approval to collect parking fees.

End of the road: The touts being led away by DBKL enforcement officers

However, in the earlier story, Cheras MP Tan Kok Wai said the DBKL urban transportation department had confirmed to him that no such approval was given to anyone to collect fees along this road, so what the touts were doing were illegal.

When this writer refused to pay, the tout said that ‘no customers are allowed to park here if they refuse to pay’. He even called another member of his group on the motorcycle to approach this writer.

Tan, who has been furious over this case since it started a month back, had waited inside the coffee shop since 8pm for the DBKL men to arrive before finally pouncing on the touts when one of them was caught red-handed.

All six were hauled up into the DBKL vehicle. Tan said they would spend a night at the Bukit Jalil lock-up before being brought to the DBKL magistrate court in Jalan Tun Razak for their charges to be heard.

Bold: Touts put up a signboard to indicate the RM3 fee for each vehicle parked in front of Old Town White Coffee in Cheras

“My office has written letters and even the outlet and customers have been complaining to the DBKL about these touts, who have been here for the last three weeks.

“Yet, no action was taken still, until tonight of course, when they agreed to come down after I asked them,” said Tan.

According to Chief Inspector Azmin Ali from the DBKL enforcement and safety department who had led the raid, the DBKL will first charge the touts under Section 50 (3) of the Road Transport Act, which is collecting fees illegally.

“As for the other crime of producing fake government document, we’ll have to refer to the police for the charge to be made,” he said.

Expensive: A sample of the ticket issued by the touts.

Asked what happens if touts continue to return, he said the DBKL would monitor and take action upon complaints received.

Tan said the first offence of collecting fees illegally under Section 50 (3) of the Road Transport Act is punishable with a maximum six months imprisonment or a fine of not more than RM2,000 or both.

“If the offence is committed a second time, the punishment will be doubled to a maximum of a year’s imprisonment or a fine of not more than RM4,000 or both.

“As for producing forged document, the punishment is under Section 46 (5) of the Penal Code where imprisonment is less than two years or fine or both.

He said for aggravated sentence whereby if the authorities could proof that the fake documents are being used to cheat the public, then charges could be made under Section 46 (8) of Penal Code for imprisonment of not more than seven years or fine or both.

StarMetro had earlier highlighted the bold tactics of this group of touts in a story titled ‘Touts Terrorising Outlet’s Patrons’ by harassing and threatening customers who parked there.

These men, who rode on motorcycles, would station themselves in the area and approach unsuspecting motorists for payment after they had parked their vehicles at designated parking lots there.

The ‘jaga kereta’ boys operate between 7pm and 3am. However, one or two members of the group would sometimes be there as early as 3pm to collect fees.