SIBU, June 17: Two businessmen were slapped with a total of five days’ jail and RM25,000 in fines by the Corruption Court here today after they were found guilty of bribing forestry officers over illegal log possession.
Both pleaded guilty before Judge Nixon Kennedy Kumbong who sentenced the first accused, Tou Tai Ling, 52, to three days of imprisonment and a RM15,000 fine in default two months’ jail.
The second accused, Ting Heng Sing, 65, was sentenced to two days’ jail and fined RM10,000 or one month’s imprisonment.
Both accused paid the fine.
The two accused were charged under Section 17(b) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009 which provides for an imprisonment not exceeding 20 years and a fine of not less that five times the value of the gratification.
According to the fact of the case, at about 8.30am on April 23, 2019, at Jalan Universiti, four Sarawak Forestry Corporation officers stopped a lorry carrying illegal mangrove logs.
The lorry driver and his two assistants when requested, failed to produce any documentation for the mangrove logs and subsequently admitted that the load was illegal.
The driver informed the officers that their “tauke” (boss) would be coming to settle the case.
An hour later, the first accused, Tou, came and offered RM2,000 to the officers as gratification so that action would not be taken against them for possessing illegal timber products.
The second accused, Ting, also arrived at the scene and gave RM3,000 to the same officers for the same purpose.
In mitigation, Tou through his defence counsel, Rosli Gapor pleaded for leniency as he regretted the offence.
He said he is the sole breadwinner of a family with two children and pledged that such an incident would not happen again.
Ikwan Mohd Ibrahim from MACC prosecuted the case. — DayakDaily
