SIBU: The fourth prosecution witness in a kidnapping case told the Sessions Court here yesterday that a police team found 20 cheques inside a bedroom in the house of a local gang leader, Wong Leh Yin (Lee Long).

Corporal Buby Teboh, 34, said at 5am on Feb 27, 2007, he went with a group of policemen led by DSP Wong Chee Kiong to the house in Lane 34, Oya Road.

Other than the cheques which he said were from different banks, the police also found telephone numbers on two sheets of paper in the room.

He recalled that Lee Long was present when they searched the place and that DSP Wong took the items to the police station after that.

Lee Long and seven of his cohorts are facing eight criminal charges in connection with Feb 6, 2007 abduction of a 30-year-old businessman Kueh Chiow Huat.

The seven are Wee Teck Hong @ Ah Lek, 40, Yong Ching Lung @ Chi Lung, 22, Yong Kie Teck @ Noney, 37, Hii Chie Peng @ Tua Tao, 35, Lau Ang Ho @ Ang Ho, 30, Matthew Soong Chan Chen @ Matthew, 32, and Wong Kong Yew @ Monkey, 30.

When the deputy public prosecutor Robert Pasang Alam asked him where the cheques and sheets of paper were found, Buby said: “Inside a drawer in the bedroom.”

Pasang: What did DSP Wong do with the cheques and paper?

Buby: The cheques and paper were seized.

Pasang: You saw that?

Buby: Yes.

Pasang: What happened to Lee Long?

Buby: Lee Long was also taken to the police station.

Buby also told the court that at the police station, he was instructed by DSP Wong to lodge a report on the seizure of the cheques and paper. The report was then forwarded to DSP Wong for further action.

During cross-examination by defence counsel Orlando Chua, Buby said Lee Long’s wife was downstairs

while Lee Long himself was in the bedroom (upstairs) when the police were in his house on the day of the search.

Buby agreed when Chua suggested that Lee Long would have been stopped by the policemen if he had made any attempt to escape.

When asked by Chua whether he was able to describe the cheques that were seized that day, he said he could not because he did not see them when DSP Wong seized them at Lee Long’s house.

Chua: Did you see the cheques when they were seized by DSP Wong?

Buby: I did not witness them being seized.

He agreed with another defence counsel, Jacob Wong, that he did not witness DSP Wong seize the cheques.

He said he identified the cheques when they were handed over to him by DSP Wong at the police station.

“I was instructed by DSP Wong to lodge a seizure report and he handed the cheques to me and so I prepared a search list for recording the cheques.

“The list was then signed by Chief Inspector Taruna Madian and was acknowledged by Lee Long,” he said.

Hearing before Judge Dean Wayne Daly continues today at 9.30am.