Salon offering haircut and more busted

KUALA LUMPUR: It was more than a haircut that was offered at a hairdressing salon for foreigners in Sentul here.
Also on offer were foreign worker registration cards, temporary work permits, multiple entry visas and foreign passports - all for the right price.
Last Friday, police busted the syndicate when they arrested a 35-year-old hairdresser and three of her accomplices during a raid on their Sri Suajaya apartment in Kg Bandar Dalam, Sentul.
The syndicate is believed to have been active for at least a year and the federal commercial crimes investigation department (CCID) moved in after observing them for three months.
CCID assistant director Senior Asst Comm II Mohd Hazam Abdul Halim said police seized 57 foreign worker registration cards, 20 temporary work permits, 14 multiple entry visas and 16 Indonesian passports, believed forged.
"We also seized a computer, three printers, two Malaysian and Indonesian Immigration Department rubber stamps and three MyKad without its chip," he told a press conference at his office in Bukit Perdana here.
SAC Hazam said initial investigations revealed each passport was sold for RM100 each and police were checking if the syndicate had members operating elsewhere in the Klang Valley.

Zass!! gives orphans a salon treat

By VIVIENNE PAL EIGHT boys with short cropped hair set in two neat rows, the ones in the front waiting to have their hair washed by those at the back.
Upstairs, the girls were doing the same.
The residents of the Nurul Qana’ah charity home in Gombak had just had their hair cut and were in the middle of a practical personal hygiene session conducted by Zass!! founder Fara La’jam.
Zass!! is a mobile hair salon currently offering mobile hair-styling services via its trademark red bus, or through house calls to Klang Valley residents.
Fara takes corporate social responsibility very seriously, thus Zass!! services also include free haircuts for orphanages and other charity homes.
"Do you know why you get lice in your hair?" Fara asked the boys while her assistants Muhamad Zaidi Rashidin and Maizon Abd Ghani help with dispensing shampoo and water.
Sebab tak syampu, tak potong dan tak sikat rambut (due to not shampooing, cutting or combing your hair)," 14-year-old dorm leader Zul Qahar Abdullah said.
A gregarious lad, Zul became a resident of the home when his father passed away more than a year ago. His mother still lives in Johor.
Not every one can cut my hair the way I like it. Abang Zaidi did a very good job," said Zul, obviously pleased with his latest ’do.
Mohd Aiman Nazhan, nine, was just as pleased.
"The best part of today’s activity is the washing hair bit," he shyly acknowledged. "It was fun!"
Fara believes that such activities, no matter how small, goes a long way.
"Some of them don’t even know about personal hygiene. When I first came here more than three months ago, this place was a real mess and we had to get the Women’s Institute of Malaysia to come and teach them about cleanliness and how to make timetables to do housework," she recalled.
Fara has been to a number of charity homes together with the Zass!! team since establishing the business in January.
Her objective is noble and stems from a genuine desire to help and she extends these services to homes that are really in need.
"My aim is to hook these homes up with sponsors before moving on to the next home. "I take it upon myself to conduct spot checks to make sure that the homes are well run and the volunteers actually do their jobs," said the entrepreneur

Vice ring under guise of hair salon smashed

Kota Kinabalu: When is a hair salon not a hair salon? Immigration officers here found the answer to this intriguing question when they raided one at Bandaran Berjaya, Friday night.
In it they found four barber chairs which looked hardly used and eight to nine partitioned rooms, some of which came complete with beds and mattresses.
To top it all, there were 23 foreign women, aged between 18 and 27, in the salon, all of whom had valid travel documents.
All 23 were arrested on suspicion of abusing their social visit passes along with a local Chinese woman in her late 20s, believed to be the "mamasan" at the premises.
With the arrests, immigration officers believe they have smashed a prostitution ring which had operated under the guise of a hairdressing salon for a long time now.
Inside the rooms, the raiding party found wet towel placed on mattresses, indicating the rooms were vacated hurriedly, condoms, toilet paper on the beds and even seminal stains on mattresses.
The facility also had a secret door which linked it to the next block of shophouses there.
According to a man who was among a crowd of onlookers who gathered there when immigration personnel brought the girls to a waiting vehicle, the outlet was very popular, drawing all sorts of people.
A senior immigration officer, who led the raiding party, said the operation was conducted following a tip-off from the public.
According to him, all the foreign women had valid travel documents, endorsed when they leave for Brunei through Sindumin and return to Sabah the same day each time.
He said the foreign women are likely to be charged with abusing their social visit passes while in the State while the local Chinese woman has since been released on police bail.
Eleven immigration enforcement personnel were involved in the operation which started at 9.40pm.