POLICE are investigating a case involving a foreign tourist who claimed that he was asked to pay RM100 to avoid being issued a summons for a traffic offence and taken to the police station.
Langkawi district police chief Shariman Ashari said that a video of the incident, which went viral on Monday, is believed to have been uploaded on YouTube on November 10 last year.
This is the second such case involving foreign visitors to Malaysia to surface over the past week.
The earlier incident involved a viral video showing a traffic policeman allegedly issuing and offering to settle a summons on the spot for a popular YouTube couple from the United Kingdom who were driving their vehicle near Ipoh.
In the more recent one-minute and 45-second video, the foreigner, a YouTuber who has a channel called ‘Travel with Luke Damant’, was riding a rented motorcycle without a helmet along a road on Langkawi Island.
The clip was extracted from his hour-long video on his experiences in Langkawi which were mostly positive.
Damant can be seen only wearing a cap while riding the motorbike.
Another tourist accompanying him, a woman on the pillion seat of his bike, was however donning a helmet.
They were soon stopped by a policeman.
In the video recording uploaded on YouTube, a voice apparently belonging to the police officer tells him that he had a choice to either go to the police station ten kilometres away or pay “on the spot”.
Damant, who identified himself to the policeman as being an Australian, said later that he paid the officer RM100 and that the actual fine would have been RM300.
He remarked that they went to a back alley to do the "transaction".
He also commented that not many people were wearing helmets outside "that little beach town", referring to Pantai Cenang which he had visited earlier.
"I knew it was going to happen. It was only a matter of time," Damant said.
"I've ridden motorbikes like (in) Bali. You just get away with chucking money at them," he added. "It works here I guess."
According to reports in Bernama, Shariman said that the police will not protect any individual who was culpably involved in the alleged incident and will take stern action against them.
“We also urge those with information on the incident to assist police in the investigation,” he said.
In another social media video that went viral earlier this week, Chris and Marianne Fisher from Shropshire in the UK, who are known for their YouTube channel 'TREAD the globe', were stopped by a policeman near Ipoh for alleged speeding.
The officer can be heard informing them that if they paid for a summons at the police station it would cost them RM300. But if they paid there and then it would be only RM100.
Marianne agreed and gave him the money handed to her by Chris. There was no paperwork.
The Bukit Aman Traffic Enforcement and Investigation Department has since begun an investigation on the incident. – The Vibes, January 31, 2024
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