Rs. 3.5 m roaming bill runaway subscriber charged in Court

By Lakmal Sooriyagoda

A mobile phone subscriber who had allegedly committed a criminal breach of trust against Dialog Telekom after running up a record bill of Rs.3.5 million using roaming facilities was arrested and produced before Court by the Criminal Investigation Department.

Making a complaint to the CID, the Debt Manager attached to Dialog Telekom alleged that the suspect had defaulted on payment of a mobile phone bill amounting to Rs.3.5 million.

The complainant had informed the CID detectives that the company had offered roaming facilities to the suspect after obtaining a Rs. 21,500 deposit on or around 21 April 2010. The complainant further alleged that the company had offered the roaming facilities to the subscriber on an agreement that the subscriber would not entrust the SIM to a third party and he would not use it for illegal activities.

The complainant further informed Court that the suspect had used roaming facilities during the period of April 2010 to 14 May 2010 and alleged that he was defaulting on this massive amount payment.

When the suspect was produced before Colombo Fort Magistrate Kanishka Wijeratne, defence counsel Kinsley Hettiarachchi appearing for the suspect denied the allegations levelled against his client.

The defence counsel submitted in Court that the SIM card offered to his client had been given to a Pakistan national and as such he should responsible for the offence. Counsel further told Court that the company had failed to disconnect the connection even though his client had made a request to do so.

Meanwhile, the CID maintained that the telephone calls had been taken from a foreign country and the suspect had been associated with a Pakistan national.

Having considered the submissions, the Magistrate ordered that the suspect be released on two sureties of Rs. 500,000. Further magisterial inquiry into the matter fixed for 22 August.