Sabahan Sohon Singh, 48, from Inanam has a sad tale to tell. His story involves lawyers, the Land and Survey Department (LSD) and the police in the state working together to deny justice to the common man. Or so he claims.

He furnished Malaysiakini with documents as proof of his allegations.

"I am coming forward after the Kota Kinabalu police failed last Saturd to help collect RM144,000 due to me from a senior lawyer who is a Sabah PKR division chief," said Singh.

"Instead of the lawyer turning up at the police station as promised, he fled to China the same day. I don't know when he will be back."

Earlier, the errant lawyer reportedly called Chief Inspector Abang Faizal who, as the investigating officer on the case, promised to persuade Singh to retract two police reports against him if the monies due to him (Singh) were settled in full.

On an earlier occasion, according to Singh, the same lawyer left for Mecca to perform the haj after asking him to come to his house to collect the money on the same day.

Apparently, the police re-entered the picture after the errant lawyer received a letter of demand Oct 7 from Jack Arthur & Co, a legal firm representing Singh.

Anwar no help

Singh had earlier approached Anwar Ibrahim for help in getting his money back, but to no avail.

NONE Anwar (left) , who is normally quick to respond to any text message, didn't respond to a query on Singh's case.

For his "temerity" in approaching Anwar, claims Singh, he was almost beaten up by thugs hired by the errant lawyer's brother.

"The lawyer also told me once that he could not pay me the RM144,000 because he used most of it to pay off certain people so that the company could obtain the title to land I had earlier purchased in Lahad Datu," said Singh.

Singh faults the LSD for his failure to collect the RM144,000.

"This is money that I actually paid the LSD in land premium for 663.5 acres in Lahad Datu. However, the LSD refused to reimburse me the money after the 40 landowners re-sold the same land to Tanjung Berjaya (M) Sdn Bhd," said Singh.

The LSD director, Osman Jamal, told Singh it is not the policy of the department to reimburse any money.

Singh also lost the RM300,000 he paid to the landowners. Apparently, they refused to reimburse him his money after they re-sold the same land to Tanjung Berjaya.

"I was in fact given the draft title to the land by the LSD for survey purposes," said Sohon. "How can they subsequently issue the land title to my land in favour of the company? They (the company) even got the land title without paying the land premium."

Subsequently, the company sent a cheque for RM144,000 to the errant lawyer as "reimbursement" to Singh for the land premium paid by him to the LSD. His land premium, Sohon suspects, was subsequently "transferred illegally" to the company by the LSD before the title was issued to it.

Sohon has 40 receipts from the LSD as proof of the land premium being paid by him for the said property in Lahad Datu.

Lawyers refuse to assist case

Sohon, who is now at his wit's end over this land premium case and other cases, disclosed that he had seen many lawyers to help him collect his money from the errant lawyer.

"All of them wanted at least RM10,000 upfront to write a simple letter of demand," complained Sohon. "A letter of demand should not cost more than RM150 at the most."

Many lawyers, according to him, even flatly refused to accept his case on the basis that "we lawyers have to watch out for each other".

The Sabah Law Association (SLA) was no help either after they tried to persuade him not to lodge a complaint against the errant lawyer.

Sohon did lodge a report with the ACA (Anti-Corruption Agency) after his first police report against the errant lawyer but apparently nothing was done by the agency.

"This is a clear-cut case of corruption on the part of the LSD, the police and also the lawyer," said Sohon. "They should have probed how my draft land title could be translated into a land title for the company without the payment of land premium. They should also probe why the LSD refused to reimburse the land premium that I paid."

Sohon wants to make another attempt to lodge an anti-corruption report, this time with the MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission).

In the meantime, Sohon hopes the Kota Kinabalu police will bring the case to court as soon as possible since it's a matter involving "criminal breach of trust" (CBT).