Funfair owner fined RM15k for hiring illegals

PEKAN NENAS: A 57-year-old funfair owner was fined RM15,000 for hiring illegals to work at his premises here.

Sessions court judge Zahilah Mohammad Yusoff imposed the fine after the businessman pleaded guilty to committing the offence at his funfair site in Sagil in Tangkak on July 1.

He allegedly employed three Bangladeshi workers.

Besides the funfair owner, at least four other locals including a woman were fined a total of RM65,000 for hiring illegals to work in their premises.

The 13 illegals were employed in restaurants, sundry shops and reflexology centres in Muar, Masai, Bandar Seri Alam and Taman Nusa Bistari.

All were charged under Section 55E(1) of the Immigration Act 1959/63.

The Immigration prosecutor was Norhasimah Othman while the accused were all unrepresented.

Meanwhile at the same special court at the Pekan Nenas immigration detention camp, three Malaysians motorcyclists, aged 29, 30 and 40, were fined between RM1,500 to RM2,000 each for exiting the country without scanning their passports at the Sultan Abu Bakar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complex.

The judge sentenced the three men after they pleaded guilty to committing the offence under Section 2(2) of the Passport Act 1966 when they did not show their passports to an immigration officer on July 1.

The Star had previously reported that the two land checkpoints between Malaysia and Singapore need a major overhaul, including having gantries, speed breakers and more CCTVs.