Forgery ring busted by cops

IPOH: Police busted a syndicate which specialised in forging official government documents with the arrest of five people including an individual with the "Datuk Seri Panglima" title.
State Criminal Investigation Department (CID) chief Datuk Gan Tian Kee said the arrest was made after police had carried out surveillance on the group over a month.
He said the group had forged MyKad, passport, driving licences,vehicle registration documents and road tax discs and were picked up at different locations in the state on Friday and Sunday.
Gan said the detainees, aged between 37 and 49, have been remanded and are being investigated for cheating and dishonesty under Section 420 of the Penal Code.
He said the 43-year-old man, who is believed to be the leader, was picked up on Friday at a house in Taman Maju Rapat here.
Police also seized three cars - Mercedes Benz, Toyota Alphard and a BMW with  fake road tax, fake registration numbers and a forged international passport from him.
"We nabbed a 43-year-old man (who is thought to be the leader). Following the arrest, another suspect, a 'Datuk Seri Panglima' was arrested. The other three people, (including a married couple), were detained in Padang Rengas, Kuala Kangsar and in Pokok Assam in Taiping," Gan said during a press conference today.
Gan said that the syndicate was dubbed 'Gang Tuah'.
"The customers can get their own MyKad with their names on it. The same goes for other documents, including vehicle road tax. Charges are based on the type documents they wanted," he said
Gan said the prices for the documents ranged from hundreds to thousands of ringgit.
He said the group obtained information on individuals from inside sources and subsequently the details were entered into the forged documents.
Police had seized several fake road tax discs, MyKad, driving licences, computers, laptops and a pen drive which contained software to forge the documents.
A government medical certificate book and three Companies Commission of Malaysia documents belonging to an agency were also recovered.
Gan said followup operations by CID and commercial crime personnel lead to the arrest of the 37-year-old husband who worked as a clerk in a  post office and his wife also aged 37, who is a teacher from Pokok Assam, Taiping on Sunday.
The raiding party seized 165 unprinted driving  licences and 21 unprinted road tax discs.
Police also picked up a 49-year-old man in Padang Rengas, Kuala Kangsar on the same day. 
They also recovered 43 unprinted road tax discs and two handphones.