SEREMBAN: A former company director was fined RM450,000 by the Sessions Court after he pleaded guilty to three alternative charges of providing fake documents to the authorities and having in his possession more than the permitted amount of cooking oil which is a subsidised item.
Judge Mohamad Kamil Nizam meted out the punishment after Azizul Abdul Halim, 56, told the court he did not wish to contest the charges.
The accused had also pleaded guilty on Dec 11 last year when charged together with another director Muhammad Faisal Hamzah, 39.
Muhammad Faisal, who is the son of a former minister, had claimed trial to the charges.
For the first two charges, Azizul as a director of Rimba Merpati Sdn Bhd, a licensed wholesaler of cooking oil, had given false information to officers from the Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry.
This happened when the company was asked to furnish information and documentary evidence on the sale of cooking oil to Pasar Segar Din Maju and Warisan Hasil Alam.
The offence was committed at around 5pm on Aug 12, 2022, at the state Domestic Trade and Cost of Living department office.
He was charged under Section 8(4)(b) of the Control of Supplies Act which was punishable under Section 22(2) of the same legislation.
As the holder of a wholesale licence, the accused had also violated rule 9(1) of the Control of Supplies Regulations 1974 for having in his possession more than 50 metric tonnes of the cooking oil.
The offence was committed at 11.15pm on Aug 11, 2022, at the business premises of Rimba Merpati Sdn Bhd at the Sinar Andalas Industrial Area in Senawang near here.
This is punishable under Section 22 (1) of the Act read together with Section 22 (4) of the same legislation and Section 34 of the Penal Code.
Offenders can be fined up to RM1mil and jailed for not more than three years or both upon conviction.
In mitigation, Hasnan Hamzah who is counsel for the accused, asked the court for leniency as his client had to provide for his two wives and 10 children out of which six of them were still schooling.
“My client is only working part time now and is remorseful over what happened,” he said, adding that the accused was only a minority shareholder in the company then and has since sold off his share.
Deputy public prosecutor Nor Alimah Mohd Sanusi asked the court to impose a minimum fine of RM200,000 for each of the three offences.
“Cases related to the misappropriation of subsidised cooking oil is increasing day by day and the direct effect of this is that consumers are sometimes unable to buy it in the right quantity,” she said.
Judge Mohamad Kamil then fined the accused RM150,000 in default six months jail for each of the three offences.