KOTA KINABALU: Two owners of companies were each fined a total of RM24,000, in default, 12 months’ jail after they pleaded guilty to three separate charges of using as genuine fake statements of accounts in order to get tenders to provide cooked food services to boarding schools in Kota Belud.
Judge Abu Bakar Manat fined Junaidah Majin and Rosnizah Jamilide RM8,000, in default, four months’ imprisonment for each of the charges under Section 471, punishable under Section 465, both of the Penal Code.
The indictment provides for a jail term of up to two years or a fine, or both, upon conviction.
The first to the third charges stated that the two accused persons aged 43 and 30, had used the fake statements dated July to September 2016 respectively at the State Education Ministry on November 24, 2016.
In pleading for a lenient sentence, counsel Shahrulnizam Salleh, who represented both the accused persons, prayed for a non-custodial sentence be imposed on his clients.
In reply, the prosecution said that the two accused persons had committed a serious offence and because of their actions, it had allegedly denied the rights of the other contactors, who deserved to get the said tenders.
The prosecution also submitted that a deterrence would serve as a lesson to the accused persons and would-be offenders not to commit a similar offence in future.
The judge also ordered the refund of both the accused persons’ bail.