PETALING JAYA, April 30 — Subang police have smashed a thriving fake medical certificate (MC) racket operating out of a printing and photocopy shop following a Malay Mail investigation into MCs easily obtained by students of higher institutions and office workers in the busy business centre.

Subang Commercial Crime Division officers, acting on information from Malay Mail, arrested two employees on suspicion of churning out MCs in a raid on the shop at SS15 yesterday evening.

Subang Jaya police chief ACP Mohammad Azlin Sadari (pic) said they seized several rubber stamps bearing logos of government and private clinics and a bag containing  MCs to be delivered to their “customers”.

He said scanners, central processing unit and thumb drives were among the equipment confiscated.

The suspects told police they had a database of government and private clinics with names of legitimate doctors in Petaling Jaya and Shah Alam.

Azlin said the pair will be investigated for cheating.

He thanked Malay Mail for exposing the shady activities and urged the media and public to continue working with police to fight crime.

Malay Mail was alerted to the crooked goings-on at the ‘MC mill’ by a college student who said many people from nearby colleges, universities and offices were buying MCs at RM10 each with ease.

The buyers just had to flash a message such as, “Hey, I hear you sell MCs” on the mobile phone to get one.

Our reporters got eight MCs during their visits to the shop by flashing such messages and one of them was even given a lowdown on the shady operations.

Our checks showed they had over the past three years dished out thousands of MCs without the knowledge of the employer.

The reporters made a police report on Thursday night, prompting police to carry out the raid.

The employer also made a police report after being informed of the dubious activities by Malay Mail.

One of the business owners said she was shocked and never expected such abuse of facilities in their shop.

She said the company will cooperate with the police to determine the extent of the racket.

Doctors whose names appeared on the fake chits were furious when told of the matter.

One said: “When previously blacksheep doctors would issue MCs freely, this would be the first time that fake MCs are being sold outside clinics on a large scale.”

One of them pointed out a glaring inconsistency with the fake chits, as the serial numbers did not tally with those of the clinic.

“Our serial numbers on the real chits have only in the 50,000s, whereas the forged chits surpassed the 100,000 mark,” said a doctor from a clinic in Kota Kemuning.

Another doctor whose name was implicated said he had no knowledge of MCs under his name being sold to the public.

He said: “Such actions will jeopardise my reputation and that of the clinic and I want to see the culprits bear the full brunt of the law.”