KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 11 — A Sessions Court judge has advised a company director who was sentenced to two years’ jail and fined RM829,170 for submitting false invoices to set an example to his children and not to repeat the same offence.
“If you want to make a living, do it the right way,” Judge Rozina Ayob told Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Samad, 50.
Ahmad Fauzi, who is the director of a company that provided training programmes was found guilty on four charges after the defence failed to raise reasonable doubts against the prosecution’s case at the end of the defence case.
He was accused of giving invoices of four companies linked to him amounting to RM165,834 to a man, with false details regarding the 1Malaysia-Industry Skills and Career Scheme programme when the programme was not run by the companies.
The offence was allegedly committed at the Community College headquarters, at Jalan P4W Putrajaya on November 25, 2013, under Section 18 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009 and is punishable under Section 24 (2) of the same act which carries a maximum imprisonment of 20 years and a fine of not less than five times the amount or value of the false items, or RM10,000, whichever is higher.
The court sentenced the accused to two years’ jail for each charge and fined RM829,170 and ordered him to serve the jail term concurrently.
However, the court allowed the application made by Ahmad Fauzi’s lawyer, Azamuddin Abd Aziz for a stay of execution of the jail sentence and fine, pending appeal to the High Court and increased the bail from RM40,000 to RM65,000.
The accused was also ordered to report to the MACC office, Johor Bahru in the first week of every month apart from his passport being surrendered to the court and blacklisted from travelling abroad.
Earlier, deputy public prosecutor Muhammad Asraf Mohamed Tahir requested an appropriate punishment taking into account the seriousness of the case and public interest factors.
In pleading for leniency, Azamuddin said his client had no criminal record.
Meanwhile, Mohd Faisal Ishak, 60, who is a lecturer at a community college, was released and acquitted on charges of abetting Ahmad Fauzi in connection with the same offence after the court found that the accused had raised reasonable doubts at the end of the defence case.
A total of 30 prosecution witnesses and two defence witnesses were called to testify at the trial which began in December 2019.
— Bernama
